Although exercising free and fair polling has been made mandatory by the Election Commission, village residents and party workers in Mandya district are enforcing their own rules to get votes in favour of their candidates.
As the gram panchayat election is nearing, incidents of threatening local residents for votes are on the rise, according to the police.
The police said cases were booked against many history-sheeters in the past two weeks to ensure free and fair polling. Party workers have been threatening local residents with dire consequences if they refused to vote for their leader in the elections, a senior police officer said. The department has already launched drives against history-sheeters and possible troublemakers across the district, he said. While the Malavalli subdivision police conducted a rowdy-parade and warned 165 rowdy-sheeters, the Mandya subdivision police collected conditional bonds from 80 rowdy-sheeters during the parade. Rowdy parades were also held by the Srirangapatna and Nagamangala subdivision police.
“We have tabulated a list of those with criminal records in our subdivision and strictly instructed them to not harass the public,” R. Shivakumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Malavalli subdivision, told The Hindu .
We have tabulated a list of those with criminal records and instructed them to not harass the public: Dy.SP
