During the nomination filing process, candidates will be allowed to bring a maximum of 4 people with them to the office of Returning Officer (RO) and Assistant Returning Officer (ARO). Additionally, permission will be granted to bring a maximum of 3 vehicles within a 100-meter radius of the RO and ARO office.Haryana Chief Electoral Officer, Anurag Agarwal, stated during a crucial meeting here today regarding the preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha general elections. The meeting reviewed the instructions issued by the Commission regarding nomination process, election symbols allocation, and the criminal records of candidates contesting the election issued by the Commission. The Chief Electoral Officer said that the security deposit for Lok Sabha general elections will be Rs 25,000. For candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, this amount will be Rs. 12,500. The security deposit will be acceptable only through cash or treasury medium. Payment via cheque or demand draft will not be accepted. Providing detailed instructions on the nomination process, Anurag Agarwal mentioned that the Returning Officer (RO) will make public information regarding the last date, venue, time for filing nominations, scrutiny of nomination papers, and the date for withdrawal of nominations. Notices will also be posted in government offices. Besides, information should also be given as to which AROs will accept the nomination papers in place of RO.
He stated that the entire nomination process will be videotaped, and all documents will be safely secured. A candidate can file a maximum of 4 nominations and can contest elections from 2 Lok Sabha seats. Nomination papers can be filled by the candidate or their proposers but cannot be sent via post; they must be personally submitted at the office of RO/ARO. Anurag Agarwal emphasized that candidates must make their criminal records public, if any. They must provide full information about their criminal cases along with an affidavit in Form 26, and also inform their political party about this matter. Political parties must publish information about such criminal cases on their official websites. Furthermore, after filing nominations, candidates and political parties must publicly disclose information about criminal cases at least 3 times in newspapers and TV channels.