Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj said that the election authority has been educating political parties about the provisions of the model code of conduct and is taking action as and when violations of the MCC came to their notice.
He was replying to a question about the rally taken out by BJP MLA T. Raja Singh on Wednesday, and the reported provocative gestures made by BJP’s Hyderabad Lok Sabha candidate G. Madhavi Latha. At a press conference on Thursday, he said that the election authority had not received any complaint on the issue so far. It had however, identified sensitive places not only in Hyderabad but other places, and polling stations in these areas had been declared as critical.
“The Election Commission has issued advisories from time to time on sensitive areas and 9,900 polling stations across the State have been identified as sensitive,” he said. This was in addition to 51 Assembly constituencies which were identified as expenditure sensitive.
Asked whether a sitting MLA could contest the Lok Sabha elections on behalf of parties other than the one he or she is representing, he said this was a legal issue and instructions were given to Returning Officers in this regard.
On the clarification sought from BRS president and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on his comments at the recent public meeting, Mr. Vikas Raj said that a letter was received asking for one more week to respond. “The ECI will take a call on the issue,” he said.
He said that steps had been taken to closely monitor the situation in the Left Wing Extremist affected areas and State and Central forces were prepared to handle any situation. The CEO made it clear that close to three lakh employees, including police personnel, should discharge their duties and there was no option left for them.
