Uttarakhand elections: Election Commission's surveillance team of goes to every rally of each candidate.
In the hill state of Uttarakhand, which will vote on February 15, Election Commission officials are trying their best to ensure a level-playing field for all candidates. Chief Development Officer of the Election Commission, Md Gulfam Ahmad told NDTV that a three-tier election monitoring team exists in the state.
According to Mr Ahmad, political parties in the state tend to fund a large chunk of the expenses of electoral rallies for individual candidates. It is for this reason that a video surveillance team of the Election Commission physically goes to every rally of each registered candidate to visually document the campaign. Everything from the amount of water bottles used to the number of flags, banners, hoardings etc. are 'recorded'.
Once a CD is filmed, the video surveillance team submits a copy of the disk to the video monitoring team, which catalogues all the items of expense in the rally in a 'shadow register' - here a checklist of items from flags to bottles to cars and chairs is present alongside rates based on market-surveys; therefore a provisional account of the candidates' rally-expenses can be made by the Election Commission.
In addition to the video teams, there are 'flying squads' involved in covering those aspects of the campaign that come under the purview of bribery, like liquor. If liquor is found on any candidate while campaigning, the nodal officer in the excise department is informed for further investigation. Similar in function is the static surveillance team deployed at checkpoints across the state, often in consonance with police services to ensure a patrol of goods coming in and out of the constituency.
Sources in the Election Commission also mention that once the 'shadow register' is prepared based on video inputs and the Election Commission draws up a list of provisional expenditure for each candidate, each list is checked against the candidates' own personal campaign budget, at least thrice.
"We give the candidate a chance to either accept or challenge our findings. In over 95 per cent of the cases, our findings are true and correct," says a senior Election Commission official.
When star campaigners come to the state, in case they share a dais with the candidates or even take the name of a candidate in a rally, the expenses are billed to the candidate.
"If a candidate is found carrying more than Rs. 50,000 in hand, he or she must prove to the flying squad where the money was obtained and where it will be used. To discourage this and to promote transparent dealings, we always encourage our candidates to use cheques and online payments wherever possible," said Radha Raturi, Chief Election Commissioner of Uttarakhand.