Election Commission collecting facts on complaints against Kempaiah

Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat on Friday said the Election Commission was collecting facts and inquiring into the complaints over Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s aide Kempaiah, who is the adviser to the Home Minister, still continuing in office and discharging duties.

“The commission is seized of the matter. We are collecting facts and inquiring into it,” Mr. Rawat told presspersons, and acknowledged that it had received complaints, including one from Janata Dal (S) national president H.D. Deve Gowda on the issue. “We have also directed the State government to look into the matter,” he said. He also warned that all those extra-constitutional authorities should keep away from election matters.

He said political party representatives, who met the commission earlier, had also complained that chairpersons, presidents and advisers appointed by the State government to various boards, corporations, commissions, and departments were still using public resources such as office premises, vehicles, and staff, which is against the model code of conduct and needs to be curbed. He said, “Parties have demanded that the commission’s transfer policy on election-related officials should be strictly implemented and action initiated against officials found working in a partisan manner.”

When Mr. Rawat was asked about the Opposition’s allegation over transfers effected by the Congress government, he said, “In some places there are problems and in some places there is neutrality issue. The Election Commission will seek a report on this. The commission takes a serious note of postings and transfers. They are an important part of the election machinery. The commission must be satisfied that a particular officer delivers to conduct free and fair elections and only those persons will remain and others have to go.”

Mr. Rawat said one of the areas of concern was enforcement of the model code of conduct and curbing distribution of liquor, freebies and money. Another area of concern is capacity building of officers up to the booth level. Mistakes should not happen and the elections have to be done with integrity, he added.

He said, “So far ₹ 2.04 crore in cash, ₹23.76 lakh worth liquor, ₹19.37 lakh worth narcotics, ₹49.17 worth precious metals, and ₹3.7 crore worth freebies, including laptops and household items, have been seized.”

He, however, expressed satisfaction over the preparedness, and said after the first meeting there had been a lot of improvement.

Report on leak of calendar of events

The Election Commission, which had set up a six-member committee to investigate the leak of calendar of events of elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, received the report on April 3. The Chief Election Commissioner said they were yet to see the contents.

“Since we have been here for the past three days, the commission had not seen the report. We will be taking action on it,” he told presspersons in Bengaluru on Friday. The commission had to face an embarrassment after the date of polling was tweeted minutes before Mr. Rawat announced that Karnataka will go to polls on May 12.

Notices had been issued to two media houses besides BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya and Congress Karnataka media head Srivatsa for tweeting the dates minutes before the commission announced them. While Mr. Malviya’s tweet had the date of the polling correctly, the counting date did not match with what the commission announced. Later, he clarified that he had tweeted what a news channel had carried.

BJP’s community meals plan to be scrutinised

The BJP’s plans to host community meals prepared from foodgrains collected through its ‘Musthi Dhanya’ programme will be scrutinised by the Chief Electoral Officer. According to the Chief Election Commissioner, the CEO will collect facts and if it is in violation of the model code of conduct, action will be taken in this connection. The party has planned community meals in some towns on April 8, 9 and 10. Meanwhile, representatives of political parties, during their interaction with the CEC, expressed concern over cooked food being seized by election officials.

‘Polling on Saturday won’t affect turnout’

While some leaders in the State have expressed apprehension over the voter turnout on May 12 because it is a Saturday, Mr. Rawat expressed confidence that it will not affect the turnout. “There were different reasons. The commission wanted to hold the elections as early as possible. Some parts of Karnataka also receives early rainfall. All these have been factored in,” he said. He also said some political parties had also suggested shutting down malls and entertainment places on the day of polling to increase voter turnout.

Booths in gated communities?

The Election Commission is looking in requests to set up polling stations in large gated communities and apartment complexes where there are more than 400 voters. Mr. Rawat said the commission had also received suggestions in this regard. The suggestions had come in the light of presence of large gated communities, especially on Bengaluru’s outskirts.