Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Thursday said the Election Commission of India (CEC) will follow legal process in case a political party is named as an accused in a chargesheet.
The question was raised following reports that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) may name the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as an accused in the Delhi Liquor scam.
“Change in criminality, name and criminal action is all defined through the legal process and we will follow the legal process. Everybody should follow the legal process whenever you have the relevant judgment and whatever it entails,” said the CEC. In fact, during a hearing in the Supreme Court on the bail petition of AAP leader Manish Sisodia a query was raised by the bench who had enquired that despite being a beneficiary it was not named as an accused or impleaded.
The CEC and the two election commissioners were in Hyderabad in the past two days to oversee preparations for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state. Assuring that this time election in Telangana will be free, fair, transparent and inducement the Election Commission has asked not only enforcement agencies to step up against the use of money power but also appealed to voters to use its mobile app to curb the free flow of liquor and money.
In the last bypoll in Munugode, the free flow of cash and liquor was widely criticised and hence one of the major concerns raised by political parties were about ensuring inducement-free election in the state.
The full EC was on a three-day visit to the state-held meetings with political parties and enforcement agencies.
“Money power and freebies distribution would be on our special radar. If the enforcement agencies do not act we will make them act. As the time comes we will assess and ensure that they act on all of this,” said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar who said in case of recovery of liquor, drugs, or cash the agencies have been asked to go back and track how it entered the state instead of just filing an FIR.
He assured that they have held meetings with state-level bankers’ committee (SLBC) and National Payment Corporation of India to keep track of online transactions as well.
In Munugode, political parties had used online transactions to transfer money into the accounts of voters directly instead of the age-old method of distributing cash in order to evade enforcement agencies. A total of 22 lakh names have been deleted from the voters list this time, mostly due to duplication. However, the CEC urged citizens to be vigilant and download their app vigil and take photographs and videos and register complaints anonymously.
He said within 100 minutes action would be taken. He also urged the voters to use the KYC app to know about the criminal antecedents of the candidates. With a significant number of senior citizens, the EC will also make the facility of home voting available to them if they apply within 5 days after the notification of the poll.