Ranchi, September 23 (HS). Leaders of political parties met the Chief Election Commissioner and his team on Monday and presented their views. In this regard, State BJP Vice President Rakesh Prasad and State Convenor of Legal Cell Sudhir Srivastava were authorized to present the party's side.
BJP representatives said that the work and behavior of Home Secretary Vandana Dadel in the recent past has not been that of an officer, but that of a political party worker. She had written a letter to the Election Commission demanding that tension is spreading in the state due to the visit of Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to Jharkhand. Apart from this, earlier also Vandana Dadel had written a letter to ED asking the validity of the notice. All this is not the work of an officer. This is the work of a political party. For this reason, a demand has been made to keep Vandana Dadel free from election work, so that a clean election can be held.
Rakesh said that the BJP raised the issue of infiltrators before the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and said that arrangements should be made to ensure that infiltrators are not able to vote under any circumstances. In Pakur, Rajmahal, Barhet, Maheshpur, Jamtara, Madhupur, Manjhgaon, Vishnupur, Mahagama, Godda, Lohardaga and Hatia, the number of voters increased by 123 percent in many booths whereas the increase in five years is 15 to 17 percent. It is necessary to investigate this.
Sudhir said that in the last elections the way the administration showed dominance over putting flags, banners etc. on houses, due to which the entire state witnessed a flag-less election, it became not a festival of democracy but a festival of fear. This time the administration should have clear instructions about flags in houses. There has been a demand for the provision of ramps for the handicapped, water at booths, toilets etc. If money is caught during elections then an investigation should be done within 72 hours and it should be published whose money it was and which party it belonged to. Some NGOs spend foreign funds to help a particular party. There has been a demand to freeze the accounts of such NGOs till the elections.
The nodal officer for deputation of paramilitary forces should be an officer of the rank of IG so that the forces are appointed properly. The way the administration shows dominance over placing tables outside the booth should be stopped and the Election Commission itself should mark the place of tables and chairs outside the booth. It is also important to investigate ghost voters. There was a demand that the election should be held in one phase. Because, now the problem of insurgency has reduced considerably. There was also a demand to keep additional EVMs at the booths. If any voter gets injured or dies at the booth, then the Election Commission and the State Government should take full responsibility for it. Because, the voter goes to cast his vote on the instructions of the Election Commission, this demand was also made.