After the declaration of the Ellenabad by-polls, the state Election Commission has come up with a strategy to ensure the election is conducted smoothly, the body has imposed a ban on publication or broadcast of any kind of opinion poll ahead of the by-election. Besides, no result of any survey will be displayed.
While reacting to the same, Hema Sharma, Chief Electoral Officer of Commission said that for the smooth conduct of the election, the commission has decided to implement a certain set of guidelines. Besides, under the Section 126 of Public Representation Act, 1951, the election commission has decided to impose a ban on publication of any kind of publication of opinion poll or survey in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls. Abiding by the orders issued by the commission, no such exit poll is allowed to take place on 30 October from 6AM to 7.30 PM as the polling is yet to take place on the same day.
It is pertinent to mention that the above-mentioned ban will be in force from October 29 to October 30 till the polling ends. In wake of this, it is worth mentioning that if any person is found in breach of the norms, he will be subject to stern action. What rule says is that any person who has been found involved in conducting or broadcasting opinion poll or survey during the prohibited period, would be sentenced two years› imprisonment or penalty or both together.
Despite the tall claims of victory in the Ellenabad by-poll by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), it looks like the battle going to be tough test for the all factions as the rest competitors including the ruling BJP-JJP (Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jannayak Janata Party) and the main opposition party in the state namely Congress are leaving no stone unturned to emerge victorious in the election.
In this continuation, it is learnt that Govind Kanda, joint contestant of the BJP-JJP, along with Abhay Chautala and Pawan Beniwal from the INlD and Congress respectively have ramped up up their canvassing after they have been fielded in the battle.
Regarding the same, while interacting with the media persons, Digvijay Chautala, brother of Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant and senior party leader, said that the forthcoming by-election is going to be a multi-cornered fight and no party contestant would get any kind of sympathy votes.
It is learnt that in view of this the election commission is likely to inform all party contestants to infirm about the norms for the fair conduct of the election. Besides, the officials continue to eye the elements with bad intentions willing to create any kind of nuisance during the polls. Besides, the commission has set a certain set of expenditure to be spent on the canvassing.