The Election Commission will proceed further on the complaints filed against the BJP and Congress candidates contesting from the Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency as the replies given by them are not satisfactory, A.B. Ibrahim, Returning Officer, has said.
Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, he said notices were issued in connection with the complaints against the BJP’s Nalin Kumar Kateel and the Congress’s B. Janardhana Poojary pertaining to violation of model code of conduct .
The complainant alleged that Mr. Kateel violated the poll code, while making a statement in connection with allocation of a BDA site to a charitable trust, while Mr. Poojary allegedly promised reservation for certain communities.
“The replies by the candidates are not in acceptable form. They are vague. We will take it up further,” Mr. Ibrahim said.
The Returning Officer said the commission had served a notice on Kalladkka Prabhakar Bhat, a leader of the Rashtriyaswayam Sevak Sangh, for allegedly seeking votes for a particular political party in the name of religion. Mr. Bhat had sought a week’s time to reply. As the elections would be over by that time he had been given 24 hours from Tuesday morning to reply.
He said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate was yet to submit the second round of expenditure details to the commission.
Additional Returning Officer B. Sadashiva Prabhu said this time, the commission would issue an appeal letter to voters, while issuing voter slips. The Returning Officer would appeal to the voters through the letter to exercise their franchise.
Caps, pamphlets seizedMr. Ibrahim said that on Tuesday officials at Talapady check post seized caps and pamphlets of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from a car coming from Kerala. The car was also seized. The party had reportedly not obtained permission to transport the campaign materials.
