Ashok Lavasa to stay out of EC code meet over clean chits to PM, Amit Shah

New Delhi: Ashok Lavasa, the election commissioner who disagreed with the poll panel’s decision to give a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah of charges of violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), mandated by the Election Commission — which regulates candidate, party and government behaviour during the elections — has, since May 4 recused himself from all meetings to discuss MCC issues.

"I am being forced to stay away from the meetings of the full commission since minority decisions are not being recorded," Ashok Lavasa wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner on May 4.

"My participation in the deliberations of the Commission becomes meaningless since my minority decisions go unrecorded," Ashok Lavasa said in the letter.

A former finance secretary, Lavasa differed with the decision of the two other members of the poll body, Arora and election commissioner Sushil Chandra, while deciding



on the cases of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations against Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Shah.

He suggested sending a notice to Modi, which wasn’t accepted. There were at least six complaints in which the PM was given a clean chit, while Congress president Rahul Gandhi was let off in one case.

"I might consider taking recourse to other measures aimed at restoring the lawful functioning of the Commission in terms of recording minority decisions," he wrote in the letter addressed to the CEC.

"My various notes on the need for transparency in the recording and disclosure of all decisions including the minority view have gone unheeded, forcing me to withdraw from participating in the deliberations on the complaints."

Several complaints pertaining to the violations of the MCC, including one against Prime Minister Modi, for addressing former PM Rajiv Gandhi as “Bhrashtachari No 1” is now pending with the commission.