Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India officials have directed the officials to book cases against women who had come out on streets demanding bribes from political parties for their votes.
A day after the videos of women demonstrating in villages of Huzurabad Assembly constituency of Telangana demanding cash equal to men for their votes had gone viral, State Chief Electoral Officer Shashank Goel asked the police to identify women in the videos and book cases against them.
The women had staged protests at the houses of village heads asking why men were offered more money for their votes while women were either given lesser amount or just ignored.
“The Election Commission of India took a serious note of the protests,” Goel said adding that demanding money to cast votes is as serious an offence as offering money to buy votes. “Strict instructions have been issued to officials in Huzurabad constituency to verify videos to identify those who demanded money as well as who distributed money”, he added.
Bribing voters or demanding money by voters is an offence under the Code of Criminal Procedures and other laws governing the matters related to the election of public repre-sentatives.
Offences carry a punishment of imprisonment up to one year or fine or both.
Karimnagar police commissioner V Satyanarayana said that the cases will be booked against those who staged protests and blocked the roads in Huzurabad demanding money for votes.
Huzurabad constituency where votes are being polled on Saturday in a by election, has caught the attention for the no hold barred fight between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the BJP with both parties going all out to win the race.
Both the parties have accused each other of large scale cash distribution among the voters to buy their loyalties. This time all records were broken when parties have charged each other with distribution of money to the tune of Rs6,000 to Rs10,000 per voter as political stakes were very high both for the TRS and the BJP.
In an embarrassment to the BJP, cash envelopes with its candidate E Rajindar were caught in the constituency on Friday, a day before the polling. Videos of the seizure also went viral on social media. Later the BJP candidate tried to address the media in the neighboring Warangal district but the police stopped him.
