The NI / 51 / Chief Electoral Officer Shri Anupam Rajan held a meeting with officials of all recognized national political parties at Nirvachan Sadan, Bhopal on Tuesday. He apprised about the Model Code of Conduct effective in relation to the Lok Sabha elections 2024 in the state. He told that M.P. Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in four phases. In the first phase, elections will be held in Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency number-11 Sidhi, number-12 Shahdol, number-13 Jabalpur, number-14 Mandla, number-15 Balaghat and Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency number-16 Chhindwara. The nomination process for the first phase will start from Wednesday, March 20. The last date for filing nomination papers is Wednesday March 27. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on Thursday March 28. Candidates who have filed nominations will be able to withdraw their names till Saturday March 30. Voting for the first phase will take place on Friday, April 19. Counting of votes in all phases will take place on June 4.
As of now, there are 5 crore 64 lakh 76 thousand 110 voters in Madhya Pradesh. This includes 2 crore 90 lakh 13 thousand 307 male voters, 2 crore 74 lakh 61 thousand 575 female voters and 1 thousand 228 transgender voters.
367 auxiliary polling stations will be built
Shri Rajan said that the total number of polling stations in the state is 64 thousand 523. A proposal to set-up auxiliary polling stations in the identified 367 polling stations with more than 1500 voters has been sent to the Election Commission of India. He said that the distribution of voter slips in the Lok Sabha elections will start in separate phases 10 days before the voting date. This work will be completed 5 days before the voting day.
Candidate will have to give information about his/her criminal cases
Shri Rajan said that maximum 4 forms can be filled by each candidate in the election. Every candidate will also have to submit an affidavit in the prescribed form along with his nomination paper. The affidavits submitted by the candidates will be displayed within 24 hours on the website of the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer www.ceomadhyapradesh.nic.in. The candidate will also have to give information about his criminal cases in the affidavit, so that voters can know about the background of such candidates. Besides, political parties will also have to publish announcements in newspapers and TV channels on 3 different dates stating the basis for selection of candidates with criminal cases. Within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate, it will have to be published in Form C-7 in the newspaper, social media platform and party website.
Control room and complaint cell functional in all districts
Shri Rajan said that with the announcement of the Election Commission of India, the Model Code of Conduct is effective in the entire state. The provisions of the Model Code of Conduct are applicable to the candidates, political parties and State and Central Government as per the guidelines of the Commission. Control rooms and complaint cells have become functional in all the districts. Action against property defacement is continuing in all Lok Sabha parliamentary constituencies. So far, action has been taken against defacement of property at 2 lakh 76 thousand 892 government buildings, 1 lakh 88 thousand 203 public properties and 57 thousand 992 private properties.
cVIGIL app for election related complaints
Shri Rajan informed that cVIGIL app is available for citizens to lodge election related complaints. Through this app, if citizens provide any live photo, video and audio as complaint regarding violation of Model Code of Conduct, then action will be taken on the complaint within the next 100 minutes. He said that during the Model Code of Conduct, the use of loudspeakers will be completely banned from 10 pm to 6 am the next day.
Candidates will be able to spend up to Rs 95 lakh in election campaign
Shri Rajan said that the limit of election campaign expenditure for a candidate for Lok Sabha elections is fixed at Rs 95 lakh. For this, the candidate is required to open a separate account in the bank. All daily expenditure accounts will have to be maintained in the election expenditure register received from the Returning Officer. All posters, banners, pamphlets, even if they are printed/published before nomination but are being used/displayed after nomination, will be added to the election expenses of the candidate.
Permission to five persons including candidate while filing of nomination
Shri Rajan said that during the filing of nomination papers, the candidate will be allowed a maximum of 3 vehicles and a maximum of 5 persons besides him. Similarly, on the day of polling, the candidate, his election agent and the candidate’s election agent/worker/party worker will be allowed only one vehicle each for the entire parliamentary constituency. He informed that it will be mandatory for all the vehicles used for campaigning in the entire parliamentary constituency to obtain permission and display the permission letter/pass in original on the windscreen of the vehicle. All expenses for commercial vehicles hired/rented for the rally will be included in the publicity expenditure account. All expenses incurred on rallies attended by the candidate/displaying photos/sharing the stage etc. will also be added to the campaign expenditure account of the candidate.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer Shri Rajesh Kumar Kaul, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Shri Manoj Khatri, Shri Basant Kurre, Shri Tarun Rathi, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Shri Pramod Shukla and representatives of all recognized national political parties were present in the meeting.
