Following Supreme Court guidelines, Telangana’s Chief Electoral Officer, Dr Rajat Kumar, has issued instructions to all candidates contesting the elections with criminal records that they must provide details of the cases pending against them and other such antecedents, in the specified format while filing their nominations.
The CEO also said that these candidates are mandated to inform their respective parties about these criminal cases and antecedents besides publishing these details in widely circulated newspapers in the areas of their respective constituencies.
According to SC guidelines, the CEO said that the details had to be published thrice on three different dates besides similar details being broadcast on electronic media.
“This should be done during the period from the day following the last date for withdrawal of candidature and up to two days before the date of polling,” the Election Commission said in a press note.
“The concerned political party shall be obligated to put up on its website, the aforesaid information pertaining to candidates having criminal antecedents,” the EC added.
Last week, the Election Commission allotted time slots on All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan to the 11 registered political parties in the state that are contesting the elections.
“Out of them, seven are national parties; Congress, BJP, NCP, All-India Trinamool Congress, BSP, CPI and CPM. The remaining are all state recognised parties; AIMIM, TRS, TDP and YSRCP. The period of broadcasts/telecasts will be between the last day of filing nominations and two days before the polling. The Prasar Bharati Corporation (PBC) will decide the actual date and time for the broadcasts and telecasts, subject to the technical constraints governing actual time of transmission available,” the EC said in a press release.
Each of the national parties and state recognised parties is allotted a base time of 45 minutes and additional time is allowed on the basis of poll performance in the constituencies that fell under Telangana in the last Assembly elections in 2014.
Telangana will witness single-phase polling on December 7 to elect a 119-member Assembly after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his cabinet decided to dissolve the Legislative Assembly on September 6. Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said that the Model Code of Conduct was in force in the state and the counting of votes will be held on December 11.