As the stage is set for the issue of notification for the Telangana Assembly elections, the State Chief Electoral Officer has issued a series of guidelines for political parties and contesting candidates.
Issuance of notification will simultaneously be followed by the filing of nominations by aspiring candidates. Accordingly, nominations would be received by the returning officers concerned from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on all working days from November 3 to 10. Only three vehicles will be permitted in the candidates’ convoy within the periphery of 100 metres to the returning officer’s office at the time of filing nominations. Only five persons, including the contesting candidate, would be allowed into the returning officer’s room.
Criminal antecedents
Importantly, candidates should file an affidavit in Form-26 declaring the information about criminal antecedents, assets and liabilities, and educational qualifications along with the nomination papers. Specific mentions about the details of criminal antecedents as well as assets and liabilities assume significance as teams of the Income Tax department on the field are utilising their own database to ascertain the change in the position of assets or liabilities to take action in cases where there is a mismatch between the declaration in the affidavit and information in their database.
Separate bank account
The guidelines mandate that candidates should open a separate bank account for monitoring their election expenditure, an account that can be opened from anywhere in the State. In addition, an online nomination facility has been made available through the Suvidha portal of the ECI and a signed hard copy of the same should be submitted to the returning officer concerned. The affidavits filed by candidates would be uploaded to the ECI website within 24 hours and they would also be displayed in the CEO’s website.
