The Election Commission on Thursday directed that premature dissolution of a legislative assembly would lead to the model code of conduct kicking in immediately in the state. The move is expected to have an immediate impact on Telangana, where the K. Chandrashekar Rao government recently announced the dissolution of the assembly.
The commission, in a letter to the cabinet secretary as well as all the chief secretaries of the states and union territories, directed that in the event of premature dissolution of a state assembly, “the provisions of Part-VII (Party in Power) of the model code of conduct shall come into operation with immediate effect in the state concerned and shall continue to be in force till the completion of the election to constitute the new legislative assembly.”
The provisions of the model code of conduct shall apply on the caretaker state government as well as on the Union government in so far as matters relating to that state are concerned, it said.
“The caretaker government should merely carry on with the day-to-day governance and desist from taking any major policy decision,” the commission said.
Consequently, it said, neither the caretaker government in the state nor the Union government shall announce any new schemes or projects with respect to the state. Also, all other prohibitions such as use of official resources for any non-official purposes and combining of official visit with electioneering work shall apply on all ministers and other authorities of the state government, the Union government as well as governments of other states.
With a view of having early assembly elections in Telangana, the TRS government announced dissolution of the assembly earlier this month. The dissolution was announced months before the term of the assembly was to end. Rao also announced candidates of the ruling TRS for 105 of the 119 assembly constituencies in the state. Telangana is now expected to have assembly elections together with the other four states that go to polls towards the end of this year.
