For the 10 parliamentary seats of Haryana, 45 candidates on Thursday filed 54 nomination papers for General Elections 2014 scheduled to be held on April 10. So far, 74 candidates have filed nomination papers.
Talking to reporters, Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Walgad said that filing of nomination papers would continue till March 22.He said that maximum number of eight nominations has been filed from Hisar followed by seven each from Sonipat and Gurgaon. Similarly, five nominations each have been filed from Kurukshetra and Faridabad, four nominations each from Karnal and Sirsa, three nominations from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, two nominations from Ambala and one from Rohtak.
Walgad said that the Election Commission has also given the contesting candidates the facility of e-filling of Form-26 having the details of their assets and liabilities. He made it clear that this facility would be completely optional and separate guidelines have been issued for this purpose.
In reply to a question, Walgad said that a Committee has been constituted to keep a check on the paid news. Apart from taking action on the complaint, this Committee could also take suo motu in this issue. So far, no complaint has been received in this regard. He said that political parties would have to furnish the details of the accounts opened at social media to the district level Media Certification Committee. This apart, pre certification is needed by the political parties before publishing any advertisement on social media.
Asked about election expenditure, he said that after filling the nomination by the contesting candidates, they are given a booklet to maintain details of their election expenditure. The Shadow Observation Register of the candidates for lok Sabha constituency would be maintained at the headquarters. He said that various rallies and meeting organised by the political parties during the elections would be monitored by the Election Department through flying squad and videography team. This team would also keep a vigil on the expenditure by the candidate.
On steps taken to check the sale of illegal liquor during elections, the CEO said that besides Police, the officers of Excise and Taxation department have been appointed to keep a vigil on the sale of liquor. Regarding the incident of attack on Public Health Engineering and Excise & Taxation Minister, Kiran Choudhry during election campaign at Narnaul on Wednesday, he said that a report has been sought from the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police in this regard. He said that the Director General of Police (DGP) has also been asked to maintain law and order situation in the State.