HYDERABAD: The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) on Tuesday requested the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)) to take action against some candidates who were organising camps for the ensuing biennial polls to the Legislative Council.
In a letter to the CEO, FGG secretary M Padmanabha Reddy alleged that some candidates from Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam and Medak districts were organising camps and had shifted shifted voters in buses to Goa and Benguluru. He said that IPC Section 171 (C) says: “Whoever voluntarily interferes with the free exercise of any electoral right commits the offence of undue influence at an election.”
Padmanabha Reddy pointed out that the IPC Section 171 (E) explains that providing food, drinks, entertainment amounts to bribing the voters. “Shifting voters to faraway places, providing them with accommodation, food, drinks etc is nothing but bribing th-em and indirectly interfering with the free exercise of electoral right,” the letter said.