Mumbai: Two Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena candidates have come under the scanner of the Election Commission of India (ECI) for receiving AB forms that were rushed to them via helicopters an hour before the nomination filing process closed.
Dr Kiran Kulkarni, the additional chief election officer of Maharashtra, told the FPJ that the EC is closely watching if these two candidates mention the cost in their total election expenditure, before deciding if action should be taken against them.
Party secretary Bhausaheb Choudbhari flew to deliver the forms to Dhanaraj Mahale in Dindori and Rajashree Ahirrao in Devlali, Nashik. They are in a friendly contest against NCP (Ajit Pawar) candidates Narhari Zirwal and Saroj Ahire, respectively. Dr Kulkarni participated in the FPJ Dialogue programme at the Free Press House office of the newspaper on ‘Wednesday.
Dr Kiran Kulkarni, Additional Chief Election Officer Of Maharashtra On EVMs
“EVMs are the best constituents of the election process in India. Our scientists and technical experts have made these machines hard to hack, ensuring that secrecy is maintained,” he said, adding that even the Supreme Court, after hearing 40 cases, accepted that EVMs are fool-proof and tamper-proof.
Assuring citizens through the FPJ Dialogue that the ECI is fully alert and will prevent all election malpractices, Dr Kulkarni said that seizures of money, alcohol, drugs, freebies and precious metals worth Rs187 crore have been made so far. The ECI flying squad, in the past two weeks, also seized a significant amount from Pune. He said 5,000 flying squads have been deployed to keep a check on the violation of model code of conduct, with teams trained to reach anywhere within an hour of receiving a complaint. So far, they have received 1,648 complaints of code violation on their C-vigil app and over 90% complaints have been addressed.
Kulkarni said Maharashtra is one of the states with more women and third gender voters. Displeased with the voting percentage in urban areas, he said people in rural, remote and adivasi areas have been found to be more vigilant to their voting rights than voters in urban areas. While voting percentage in rural areas breaches the 70% mark, cities remain under 50-54%.
To amplify the numbers, he said 1,185 polling booths have been set up in high-rises in many cities. Dr Kulkarni also refuted allegations made by the opposition that 40,000 bogus names were included in the voting list. “We verified the complaints and found only 800 bogus names, which were immediately removed. The EC does not accept bulk applications and only one mobile number for six applicants is allowed to avoid bogus enrolment,” he said.
