Patna, Sept. 12: The state information commission stated that 2,000 cycles seized from Kumhrar yesterday were to be used for a JDU election campaign but it is not a violation of model code of conduct as per preliminary investigation.

Sources in Indian People's Action Committee (IPAC), a professional agency headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar's political strategist Prashant Kishor, too, claimed that the cycles were for use under a campaign titled "Har Ghar Nitish, Har Man Nitish".

Around 10,000 cycles - all yellow in colour - are proposed for use in this campaign that will see volunteers criss-crossing different constituencies and campaigning for the JDU.

Recruitment of volunteers for this campaign is also being done in Patna and selected volunteers are to be given smart phones as well.

The campaign was initially scheduled to start from next Monday (September 14).

On Friday, a team of district police and administration officials headed by sub-divisional officer (SDO) of Patna City, Anil Rai, carried out a raid at Bhagwat Milan Hall and recovered 2,000 cycles.

Additional chief electoral officer R. Laxmanan told The Telegraph on Saturday: "The district electoral officer has submitted the corresponding report, which states that the cycles were to be used for election campaign by the JDU. The JDU is also accounting for it through election expenditure concerned. It is also being assessed whether the expenditure on the cycles is being accounted through the party head or any particular candidate. However, it is prima facie clear that this type of campaign is not a violation of model code of conduct unless it is properly accounted in the election expenditure.

Sources claimed that the average cost of one such cycle is around Rs 3,000, which means that the expenditure on 2,000 cycles would be around Rs 60 lakh and the same for 10,000 cycles would be around Rs 3 crore.

Deliberating on the execution of this campaign, a source in the IPAC said: "The elected volunteers would move on these cycles in different constituencies and promote the work done by the Nitish- government over the past 10 years. They would also take feedback from local residents and report to the control room in Patna. The volunteers would also be provided with a smart phone for better coordination with the control room and monitoring purposes."

According to the source, the cost of each smart phone to be given to the volunteers is around Rs 5,000, which means that the total expenditure on 10,000 such smart phones would be around Rs 5 crore.

Asked about possibility of violation of model code of conduct in hiring volunteers for this campaign, Laxmanan said: "Volunteers can be hired for such a campaign and the party can pay allowances to them but the corresponding expenditure should be properly accounted in the election expenditure of the party or candidate concerned."

Sources claimed that the JDU had recently written a letter to the Election Commission stating that the IPAC is involved in election campaign for the party. Few other activities engineered by the IPAC over the past few months include "Parche Pe Charcha" and "Har Ghar Dastak", wherein the JDU leadership interacted with the electoral in the run-up to the Assembly elections.