BHOPAL: The Congress has many problems and the Bharatiya Janata Party was satisfied with arrangements made for Ater and Bandhavgarh by-elections. This came out in the all party meeting called by the chief election officer, here on Wednesday.
Congress party representative JP Dhanopiya raised the issue of two officers posted in Ater constituency for a long time. He said SDM Uday Singh Sikarwar and SDOP Indraj Singh Bhadoria were posted in Ater constituency for more than three years. Not only this, Bhadoria was also a resident of the constituency, he said.
BJP representative retired justice Shantilal Lodha said he was satisfied with the arrangements made by the election commission. He also added the Congress was unnecessarily making issues. Chief electoral officer Saleena Singh informed that for the first time in state, along with EVM, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was going to be introduced in the elections.
She also added earlier the Congress had demanded to conduct the election through ballot papers, but this VVPAT had satisfied the party demand. “Now, the Congress is ready to conduct the election through EVM.”
She added they had demanded 20 companies of CRPF to conduct free and fair elections. The tents and arrangements made by the candidates 100 metres from the polling stations would be added in the account of the candidate’s election expenditure. Earlier it was not accountable in the election expenditure.
In the meeting seven registered parties were called, where six representatives including from the BSP, BJP, Congress, NCP, CPI and CPI (M) attended the meeting, but the representative of Trinamool Congress did not attend the meeting.
