Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni in an interview to C.S. Kotteswaran reveals his strategies for proper conduct of the May 16 Assembly polls.
Will you take part in the swearing-in ceremony of Chief minister and the new government formation, if invited. A few previous CEOs have attended ?
I will not attend the swearing-in ceremony of the 15th elected Assembly and have already expressed it to my colleagues in Election Commission.
When they were in service, two police officers showed their loyalty towards a political party last month, Will any action be taken against them ?
At that time, the model code was not in force for the CEO to take a call. Now, if there is such a situation, inquiries and suspensions will be mooted.
When there are complaints against DEOs and returning officers, what will be the redressal period. Tamil Nadu now has more conferred IAS officers as district election officers. What is your stand?
Yes, I know there are several conferred IAS officers as collectors. There will be certainly problem for non-performing collectors and district SPs, whether they are direct recruits or conferred. Besides, political complaints and allegations, if the number of complaints from a district surges or it is serious in nature, they will be immediately changed in consultation with Election Commission.
Cash for votes and freebies have become the order of the day. You have to depend only on state police and bureaucrats. There is no separate force for public (election) department. Is there any new strategy to address the issue and several former CEOs have failed on the issue?
There are plans to rope in central government staff from income tax, central excise and railways. Public should be active, particularly youngsters should join hands to expose cash for votes at micro level. They should share them in social media, give media bytes and petition the CEO office for action. Though there is no dedicated staff for elections department, the EC can punish the non co operating government staff till the model code is in force.
During last elections, the then CEO ordered Cr.P.C.144 inviting political uproar. What is your take on this?
It is an issue which has to be decided in concurrence with all the stakeholders, including political parties, voters, district election officers and Election Commission. So far, there is no ban from EC in promulgating Cr.P.C. 144 and it has to be examined as per the ground reality.
Political heavyweights and VVIP constituencies are to be more this polls with several CM candidates in the fray like J. Jayalalithaa, M. Karunanidhi, M.K. Stalin, Anbumani Ramadoss and Vijayakanth. How are you going to tackle poll violations, particularly cash and freebie distribution?
These constituencies will be marked as expenditure sensitive seats, where EC will change its modus operandi. Besides cash for votes, we will also look out for hawala transactions and intensify surveillance at sea port, railway stations and airport, which are usually ignored.
One of the reasons for poor polling is said to be lack of awareness in rural areas and lack of interest in urban areas. South Chennai recorded one of the lowest polling in last Lok Sabha polls. What is the election department going to do about it?
It is a fact. And for that reason social media campaign has been intensified, cinema stars are roped in to pull voters to polling stations. School students are already roped in as brand ambassadors. Soon, auto drivers and call taxi operators will be asked to campaign for maximum fair polling.
