Chief Electoral Officer for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Bhanwarlal has said that the election authority has received the explanation given by YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on his reported comments against TDP president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and the Kurnool district collector has been asked to submit his remarks on the incident.
“The issue will be examined in detail once the district collector furnishes his remarks and sent to the Election Commission of India for further action,” he said. Asked about the complaint lodged by the YSR Congress on Mr. Naidu’s comments allegedly asking voters not to take Government’s incentives if they did not want to vote for the ruling party, he said the comments were made before the notification for the election was issued, but the election authority had referred the issue to the Election Commission.
He advised the political parties and their leaders to maintain decency in criticising the policies and programmes of other parties. But the criticism should not be on the personal character of rivals. In all, 44 cases relating to violation of Model Code of Conduct had been registered.
ADVERTISEMENT
so far including those against some Ministers in the ongoing campaign for Nandyal by-election.
Polling would be held on August 23 and counting of votes would take place on August 28. In all, 255 polling stations would be set up as against the 238 polling stations of the previous elections and all the polling stations would be manned by personnel from the Central Armed Reserve or the AP Special Police. Over 173 flying squads had been deployed to keep a watch on the campaign in the constituency.
It was decided not to depute local police as they could be vulnerable and the election authority had requested for eight companies of forces for the election as all the polling stations were considered sensitive in the constituency in view of the importance attached to the election by the political parties.
ADVERTISEMENT
There was no objection in the ruling party leaders campaigning in the constituency, but the election authority would take a serious view and register cases under violation of code of conduct if they were found guilty of misuse of their position and official machinery.
SMS alerts
The Election Commission had decided to take advantage of technology in monitoring the election process in Nandyal by-election. Accordingly, people can obtain information about the polling station in which they should cast vote through an SMS. In addition, they could register their complaints against violation of model code whenever they noticed.
For knowing their polling station, voters should send an SMS ‘AP (space) Vote (space) Voter Id number’ to 9223166166. SMS ‘AP (space) MCC (space) complaint’ could be sent to the same number for lodging their complaints if any with the election authority.
“The complaint will directly go to the flying squads without any human interface. This has been introduced to ensure that the confidentiality of the complainant is maintained,” CEO Bhanwarlal said.