As many as 48 candidates filed their nominations on the first day of the issuance of the notification for election to the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the State in a single phase on May 13.
Of these, 42 unique candidates filed their papers and others pertained to more than one nomination filed by the candidates, Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said. The last date of filing nominations is April 25 followed by their scrutiny the next day. April 29 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.
Mr. Vikas Raj said aspiring candidates could also file their nominations online, but the hard copies of the nominations should be submitted to the returning officers concerned either in person or through one of the proposers on April 24, a day before the last date. Candidates should be careful when filing their nominations as well as submission of affidavits ensuring that no blank columns are left. The election officials concerned would send notices to the candidates in the event of leaving blanks and the papers would be liable for rejection if there was no response to the notices.
“Nominations should be submitted to the returning officers at the specified places,” he said. Candidates should take adequate care to ensure that criminal antecedents, if any, were published in newspapers or television channels at least three times before the last day of submission of nominations. Steps should also be taken to open a separate account for election expenditure a day before filing nomination and the number should be submitted to the returning officer concerned. “Existing bank accounts or joint accounts with family members will not be accepted,” he said.
In all, 17 general observers, 34 expenditure monitoring observers and nine police observers would be deployed to monitor the election process and the enforcement agencies seized cash, liquor and other material worth ₹ 136 crore so far. The election officials filed 4,099 first information reports relating to violation of the election code till date.
