In a drastic step for poll-bound Uttarakhand, deemed a move towards electoral reform, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has stopped as many as 58 people who contested elections in the past from seeking re-election for either the Parliamentary or Assembly election for the next three years because of their failure to submit their election expenditure details to ECI. It is leant that the persons thus debarred from contesting election include those who contested election as Independents after being denied tickets by the major parties. Informing this, the secretary, ECI Rahul Sharma said in Dehradun on Friday that ECI had sent a communiqué on the matter to the concerned persons. “We asked them to submit the election expenditure details, but they chose to ignore the order,” he said.
To check malpractice before and during the election like money used to lure voters, ECI has fixed expenditure limit for the candidates. As for the candidate contesting lok Sabha election, the limit has been fixed at `70 lakh while for the Assembly election, it is `28 lakh. The Centre has suitably amended Rule 90 of the conduct of Election Rules-1961.
Talking to the media, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Radha Raturi said that despite its being mandatory for the candidates to submit their expenditure details to the ECI within a stipulated time, 58 such candidates did not bother to submit the same, thus inviting the action from ECI. “They spent more than the amount the ECI fixed. When asked to explain, they failed to do so. ECI normally gathers information of the expenditure incurred by the candidates through its own wing. When the candidates submit their details we match the figures we collect with the figures they submit,” she said.
She further said that they convene meetings with the political parties before the election to fix the fare of the vehicles to be used and the price of each material to be used for electioneering.
Things have turned interesting now with ticket hopefuls from all the parties presently engaged in jockeying hard for nominations. It is learnt that as many as ten persons from a party are eying a single seat. Sources say that the party top brass would breathe a sigh of relief with the Election Commission having clamped down on the erring candidates. “From now on, we have to take the ECI more seriously. It is clear that they can act sternly instead of indulging in mere platitudes. Besides, the pressure on us by the huge number of ticket aspirants would considerably lessen,” said a leader of a party. Interestingly few of the candidate, who have been disqualified, were bonafide candidate of a national party for upcoming election-2017 but now they would neither be eligible for assembly election nor for upcoming general election-2019.
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