Jayanagar candidate protests EC’s inaction on malpractice
BENGALURU: Protesting the apathy of the Election Commission (EC) of India's officials in curbing cases of electoral malpractice in Jayanagar constituency, Ravikrishna Reddy has requested EC to allow him to distribute freebies to voters.
Speaking to the media, he said that he has urged EC to provide him with a written permission allowing him to distribute freebies to voters from his constituency on June 2. "If there is no response, we will consider your silence as permission and distribute saris, cookers and cash on Saturday," he said.
To a question, he said that he was being forced to resort to such techniques as the EC had remained apathetic to the complaints he has filed in the past regarding such malpractices. None of the flying squads formed to curb such irregularities, are active ahead of polling on June 11 in the constituency, he said.
Since, EC is incapable of organising free and fair elections, it should allow me to distribute `2,888 per vote, one cooker per vote, one saree per vote or one knicker per vote'. "We won't be distributing liquor as I am personally against the consumption of alcohol — a major cause of poverty in rural areas," he added.