BENGALURU: Candidates who have criminal cases against them, could be staring at disqualification if they do not follow the Election Commission mandated rule of issuing three advertisements in print or electronic media before the election date, telling voters about these cases.
In the three Lok Sabha constituencies that make up the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits, none of the candidates who have cases registered against them have issued any advertisement and could be disqualified in case they win the elections, District Election Commissioner and BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad warned on Wednesday.
“Candidates who have mentioned criminal records in their affidavits have to advertise the same in the media before the election date, on three different days. We will report any shortcomings to the EC and they can take action even if the candidate has won,” he said.
State Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said candidates would be given time to submit proof of the advertisements issued as well as expenditure before the declaration of results on May 23. “Right now we are not monitoring if advertisements have been issued, we will scrutinise this later,” he said.
90 lakh to vote on April 18
On April 18, 90.83 lakh eligible voters will be able to cast their ballot across the three constituencies in Bengaluru. The final list of voters was released on Wednesday by N Manjunath Prasad, the District Election Commissioner and Commissioner of the BBMP.
In the list, there are 47.33 lakh male voters and 43.48 lakh female voters. There are 1,540 voters registered under the ‘others’ category. In Bangalore North, there are 31 candidates in the fray while Bangalore Central and South have 22 and 25 candidates respectively. “All polling stations in Bengaluru will have two electronic voting machines (EVM’s) as the number of candidates is more than 15. There was a shortage of EVM’s and other machinery and we are getting these from other districts as well as outside the state,” Prasad said.
Officials will distribute a small election guide booklet to every house from April 5 and voters slips will be given out by 85,000 booth level officers. The election commission will also tie up with Ola cabs to ferry physically challenged voters to the polling stations from their homes.