The Lok Sabha election is upon us as political parties use unethical methods to gain votes.
By Rohit Chatterjee
Bengaluru, April 12, 2019
The Lok Sabha election of 2019 is currently being held in the nation. To win an election, it is necessary to campaign for votes from the citizen. However, many candidates and parties have indulged into unethical methods to gain votes.
According to data by the Election Commission of India (EC), a number of commodities have been seized which were used to gain votes.
The state of Karnataka has ranked the second highest in the nation where a huge number of illegal alcohols has been seized. Apart from liquor, electrical appliances have been given away as gifts in order to gain votes.
The amounts of seized merchandise are worth a lot of crores and show how unethical the election campaign has become. Narcotic substances were also found to be offered.
As of yesterday, the amount of liquor seized was worth Rs. 35.27; narcotics Rs. 0.11 crore; precious metals such as gold and silver worth 1.12 crore, other and freebies worth 2.28 crore, for a total amount of Rs. 65.59 crore.
On April 10, 2019, the total amount of confiscated was Rs. 60.2 crore.
Such figures show how unethical the election campaign has become with political parties and candidates breaking the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) laid by the EC.
There are several kinds of punishment if the Code is violated. If any political party or candidate does not adhere with the model code of conduct, they can be asked to pay fines or can be sent to jail if a First Information Report (FIR) is lodged against them. The EC also has the power to cancel the polls in a constituency.
The EC has launched an application known as the ‘cVigil’ where people can upload photos as proof against the violators. The identity of the complainant will be kept anonymous.
In addition to this, the EC has deployed Static Surveillance Teams across the nation to check vehicles and conduct raids.
The Softcopy newspaper spoke to Abdul Razak, a political analyst who said, “These incidents happen during elections, irrespective of any law present. Some parties and candidates use every trick to influence people and get votes. Several cases of arrest have been made but nothing really has changed since corruption and unethical method are rooted deeply into the system.”
