How to Contest Vidhan Sabha Elections : A Beginner's Guide
Hi! Welcome to my Blog!
Here is a brief guide on How to Contest Vidhan Sabha Elections (Legislative Assembly Elections). It covers the forms and permissions required during the 3 stages of contesting.
Stage 1 Submission of Nomination Forms : To contest Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) election, one has to apply for nomination form 2B and an affidavit form 26 . These forms are available at the office of Returning Officer of the legislative assembly constituency. One has to pay a nomination fee to avail these forms. The fee amount is Rs 10,000/- for General category and Rs 5000/- for SC/ST candidates .
The forms need to be duly filled and submitted within a date stipulated by Election Commission. Once these forms have been submitted, they are scrutinized. If the form gets approved , the candidate is ready to contest election. Often incomplete forms are rejected during scrutiny stage. For links related to nomination forms, check out my post titled "Form 2B for Contesting Elections to the Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly)".
The contesting candidate will require a new bank account for all election related transactions. This needs to be opened before filing nomination form because the details of this bank account will go into the affidavit that will be submitted along with nomination form. The contesting candidate will also be required to appoint an Election agent who will do most of the paperwork when the candidate is busy campaigning.
Stage 2 Permissions Required For Vidhan Sabha Campaigning: For running a campaign on ground, permissions are required for conducting meetings, organizing rallies, using own or hired vehicles for canvassing, for printing and publishing posters, leaflets, pamphlets, flex etc and for running paid ads on a candidate’s political page for social media promotion. For some of these permissions , candidates and political parties can submit applications through Suvidha website or App. You can check out this youtube video https://lnkd.in/f5_CzrR for details of Suvidha app and permissions that can be applied through this app. Election Commission has directed that these permissions should be approved within 24 hrs.
For promotion on social media, TV, Radio and publishing and printing of pamphlets etc, permissions need to be taken from MCMC - Media Certification and Monitoring Committee. For details you can download Compendium of Instructions on Media Related Matters https://lnkd.in/fePKkwF . Similarly there are compendiums and handbooks for candidate, polling agent, election expenditure, counting agent etc that you can go through for more details. The Election agent is authorized to sign on behalf of candidate for these permissions and approvals.
Stage 3 Expenditure Submission for Vidhan Sabha Elections: All expenses related to election need to be maintained in a booklet which is provided to candidates after their nomination has been approved. It is compulsory to submit receipts for all expenses. In the absence of timely submission, one can be barred from contesting next 3 elections. Expenditure submission can be done during and at the end of the campaign. The Election agent is authorised for expenditure submission on behalf of contesting candidate.
The election related transactions need to be entered as follows in the expenditure submission booklet:
• Pink page: Cash withdrawn from bank + material or money etc received from anybody else . Here bank account refers to the one which has been opened specifically for election related expenses.
• Green page: Enter all bank related deposits and withdrawals here. The bank account here refers to the one which has been opened specifically for election purpose.
• White page: Enter all expenses that have been incurred whether in cash or kind or through bank account or through online transactions in this page.The bank account here refers to the one which has been opened specifically for election purpose.
The overall expenditure should not exceed the limit set by Election Commission. This limit is applicable from the time a candidate's nomination has been accepted and he/she has started campaigning after receiving the necessary permissions.
Candidates and/or their representatives are called to the office by officers on Election duty for the following purposes :
- Matters related to expenditure submission
- Grievance redressal meetings organized to resolve issues faced by candidates and political parties
- To verify security of strongroom after election and before the day of counting of votes
It is very important to verify that the call is from officer on election duty and not from competition. Information about some of these meetings will also be published in newspaper.
Candidates might get phone calls from journalists and calls or visits from competition during this time. It is necessary that candidates and voters are aware of Model Code of Conduct. There is an app called as cVigil where anybody can report Model Code of Conduct violations. Candidates are issued notice on violation of Code of Conduct or can be barred from campaigning for several hours. For Model Code of Conduct, you can check out this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5YmSZVgoSU.
Once the election is over, a candidate will need counting agents to be present along with him/her on the day of counting of votes. On the day of counting, the results are stored in a control unit after every round of inspection of EVMs and ballot papers by officials and announced to all those who are allowed to attend. The results are simultaneously available on Election Commission website and can be viewed by anybody.
Hope the above information will be useful for someone wanting to make a difference to the democracy or just be an informed voter.
Happy Contesting !
Here is a brief guide on How to Contest Vidhan Sabha Elections (Legislative Assembly Elections). It covers the forms and permissions required during the 3 stages of contesting.
Stage 1 Submission of Nomination Forms : To contest Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) election, one has to apply for nomination form 2B and an affidavit form 26 . These forms are available at the office of Returning Officer of the legislative assembly constituency. One has to pay a nomination fee to avail these forms. The fee amount is Rs 10,000/- for General category and Rs 5000/- for SC/ST candidates .
The forms need to be duly filled and submitted within a date stipulated by Election Commission. Once these forms have been submitted, they are scrutinized. If the form gets approved , the candidate is ready to contest election. Often incomplete forms are rejected during scrutiny stage. For links related to nomination forms, check out my post titled "Form 2B for Contesting Elections to the Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly)".
The contesting candidate will require a new bank account for all election related transactions. This needs to be opened before filing nomination form because the details of this bank account will go into the affidavit that will be submitted along with nomination form. The contesting candidate will also be required to appoint an Election agent who will do most of the paperwork when the candidate is busy campaigning.
Stage 2 Permissions Required For Vidhan Sabha Campaigning: For running a campaign on ground, permissions are required for conducting meetings, organizing rallies, using own or hired vehicles for canvassing, for printing and publishing posters, leaflets, pamphlets, flex etc and for running paid ads on a candidate’s political page for social media promotion. For some of these permissions , candidates and political parties can submit applications through Suvidha website or App. You can check out this youtube video https://lnkd.in/f5_CzrR for details of Suvidha app and permissions that can be applied through this app. Election Commission has directed that these permissions should be approved within 24 hrs.
For promotion on social media, TV, Radio and publishing and printing of pamphlets etc, permissions need to be taken from MCMC - Media Certification and Monitoring Committee. For details you can download Compendium of Instructions on Media Related Matters https://lnkd.in/fePKkwF . Similarly there are compendiums and handbooks for candidate, polling agent, election expenditure, counting agent etc that you can go through for more details. The Election agent is authorized to sign on behalf of candidate for these permissions and approvals.
Stage 3 Expenditure Submission for Vidhan Sabha Elections: All expenses related to election need to be maintained in a booklet which is provided to candidates after their nomination has been approved. It is compulsory to submit receipts for all expenses. In the absence of timely submission, one can be barred from contesting next 3 elections. Expenditure submission can be done during and at the end of the campaign. The Election agent is authorised for expenditure submission on behalf of contesting candidate.
The election related transactions need to be entered as follows in the expenditure submission booklet:
• Pink page: Cash withdrawn from bank + material or money etc received from anybody else . Here bank account refers to the one which has been opened specifically for election related expenses.
• Green page: Enter all bank related deposits and withdrawals here. The bank account here refers to the one which has been opened specifically for election purpose.
• White page: Enter all expenses that have been incurred whether in cash or kind or through bank account or through online transactions in this page.The bank account here refers to the one which has been opened specifically for election purpose.
The overall expenditure should not exceed the limit set by Election Commission. This limit is applicable from the time a candidate's nomination has been accepted and he/she has started campaigning after receiving the necessary permissions.
Candidates and/or their representatives are called to the office by officers on Election duty for the following purposes :
- Matters related to expenditure submission
- Grievance redressal meetings organized to resolve issues faced by candidates and political parties
- To verify security of strongroom after election and before the day of counting of votes
It is very important to verify that the call is from officer on election duty and not from competition. Information about some of these meetings will also be published in newspaper.
Candidates might get phone calls from journalists and calls or visits from competition during this time. It is necessary that candidates and voters are aware of Model Code of Conduct. There is an app called as cVigil where anybody can report Model Code of Conduct violations. Candidates are issued notice on violation of Code of Conduct or can be barred from campaigning for several hours. For Model Code of Conduct, you can check out this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5YmSZVgoSU.
Once the election is over, a candidate will need counting agents to be present along with him/her on the day of counting of votes. On the day of counting, the results are stored in a control unit after every round of inspection of EVMs and ballot papers by officials and announced to all those who are allowed to attend. The results are simultaneously available on Election Commission website and can be viewed by anybody.
Hope the above information will be useful for someone wanting to make a difference to the democracy or just be an informed voter.
Happy Contesting !
Comments
Post a Comment