Assembly elections: Code of conduct comes into effect
SECURITY State govt has requisitioned 200 companies of paramilitary forces
CHANDIGARH : With the Election Commission announcing the poll schedule for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana, the model code of conduct (MCC) has come into effect in the state with immediate effect.
While polling will be held on October 21, the counting of votes of will take place on October 24.
Talking to mediapersons, Haryana chief electoral officer (CEO) Anurag Agarwal said the notification for the election will be issued on September 27 and the last date for filling nominations will be October 4.
He said the scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on October 5 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 7. He said the final voter list has been published as per which 1.83 crore voters will exercise their right to franchise this time. There are 3.64 lakh voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years. The voter turnout in 2014 Vidhan Sabha election was 76.5 %.
The CEO said that 19,442 voting centres had been established in the state, including 5,511 in urban areas and 13,931 in rural areas. There are 10,288 polling locations in the state, he said.
Besides, an arrangement of 27,996 voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines has been made.
Agarwal said that this time the EC has adopted a tough stance against the defacement of property, hence directions have been sent to all deputy commissioners for carrying out different set of activities. The EC will activate the c-VIGIL app from Sunday onwards and anyone could upload the photographs regarding the violation of MCC on this app. Agarwal said that voter helpline 1950 is functional round the clock.
Regarding the issue of paid news, he said the district and state level media certification and monitoring committees have been constituted.
He said the income tax department has also started a toll free number 1800-180-4815 for the monitoring of election expenditure of the candidates.
The state government has also requisitioned 200 companies of paramilitary forces for the polls.
HOW PARTIES FARED IN 2014 ELECTIONS
While the BJP had won 47 seats in 2014, there were 19 MLAs of
the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and 17 of the Congress. The BSP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) won one each seat and there were five independent MLAs.