HYDERABAD: The Game of Thrones is starting early in Telangana! “The fun and games will begin today,” declared chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar in an exclusive interaction with the editorial team of Express, on Sunday. “As political temperatures are set to soar, a slew of measures will be taken by the Election Commission, which will play the role of an umpire, to ensure free and fair polling,” said Rajat Kumar.
“There will be a stronger vigil on political parties, candidates and their activities. Election expenditure of candidates will be tracked from date of filing nominations. Rallies will be monitored over video to ensure there are no law and order issues or violation of the model code of conduct,” added the CEO.
With the Election Commission set to introduce electronic surveillance of polling booths, no stone is being left unturned. “CCTV cameras will be used to keep a check on the behaviour of officers. These cameras will continue to be in use in the other, upcoming polls,” Kumar added, while dismissing the innumerable pre-poll surveys that are being conducted.
There are several pre-poll surveys coming out and we will not stop them, he said. “People can form their opinions.” He also cautioned that a lot of these surveys lack credibility and are often used to underplay their opponent. “But exit polls,” he said, “will be checked.” He said the focus will be on exit polls as they are far more accurate.
ALL WOMEN BOOTHS
The Commission also intends to staff certain booths with only women. The move is to ensure that religious sentiments of the Muslim community are not hurt. “Some women would not want to show their face to a man. To avoid such a situation, we will have women officers in certain polling stations,” said Rajat Kumar.
DRAFT MANIFESTOS
All political parties are required to submit the manifestos to the Election Commission, in three sets within three days after its release.
They should also submit a declaration in the form of an affidavit on the manifestos as per the Para 8 of MCC, duly signed by the President or General Secretary of political parties. The poll assurances given by the parties would be studied for their practicality.
CRIMINAL ANTECEDENTS
Candidates having criminal records have to file their affidavit in Form-26. The candidates must provide the details of the criminal cases pending against them and other such antecedents in the specified format while filing the nominations.
At the same time, these candidates are required to inform their respective parties about these criminal cases and antecedents.
The CEO asked this category of candidates to publish these details in widely circulated newspapers in the areas of their respective constituencies’ thrice on different dates and also ensure wide publicity on electronic media.
This should be done during the period from the day following the last date for withdrawal of candidature and up to two days before the date of polling.
STRICT ENFORCEMENT
So far, officials have seized over `76 crore in cash from various parts of the State and over `6 crore worth of liquor. All of this, even before the nomination process kicked in. The total cash seized during 2014 polls was only `76 crore.
HITECH POLLS
The present elections will be conducted in high-tech mode. Software solutions have been used for a number of works including, online registration of enrolment and online filing of model code violations by public through the C-Vigil app.
STAR CAMPAIGNERS
Top leaders like Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu, K Chandrasekhar Rao and Swami Paripoornananda, national leaders of the Left parties.
MAJOR POLL ISSUES
TRS: The ruling party to harp on its achievements like 24X7 power supply, irrigation projects, Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha, Asara pensions, Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bhima.
TRS SLOGAN: Reelect KCR, so that the development process will continue. NCB Naidu is against Telangana and the election of Grand Alliance means stalling the development.
CONGRESS: Corruption in governance, unemployment, delay in the construction of irrigation projects, the family rule of KCR and others.
CONGRESS’ SLOGAN: Vote for Grand Alliance, root out the corrupt TRS and family rule of KCR. Get one lakh jobs, dole and many more.
Total Assembly segments: 119
Total voters: 2,73,18,603
Male voters: 1,37,87,920
Female voters: 1,35,28,020
Others : 2,663
Gajwel : K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minster
Huzurnagar: N Uttam Kumar Reddy, TPCC president
Nagarjuna Sagar: K Jana Reddy, Opposition leader
Sircilla: KT Rama Rao, IT and Industries Minister
Siddipet :T Harish Rao,
Irrigation Minister
Husnabad: Chada Venkata Reddy, CPI state secretary
Musheerabad: K Laxman,
BJP state president
Chandrayanagutta: Akbaruddin Owaisi, MIM floor leader
VOTER SLIPS
For the first time, general voters are being given voter slips containing route maps, indicating the way to the booth. The distribution of voter slips would be completed by December 1. Another first is that VVPATs are being used for the voter to verify if their vote was cast correctly.