Chief Electoral Officer restricts use government vehicles for Dec 7 Telangana elections

The Chief Electoral Officer made an announcement about political posters and banners on government properties and usage of official vehicles.

After the elections in Telangana were announced on Saturday, the Chief Electoral Officer made an announcement about political posters and banners on government properties and usage of official vehicles.

Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said that all political posters, banners and advertisements on every government properties will be removed in the next 24 hours.

Talking about the use of political vehicles in the campaigning, Kumar said that there will be a total ban on the use of any government/official vehicles by political parties or candidates who will be contesting in the elections. 

Any person connected with the political party or the candidate will also not be allowed to use the vehicles, Kumar added.

Elections in Telangana will be held in a single-phase on December 7 and the counting of votes will be held on December 11, Election Commission announced earlier on Saturday. 

The 199-seat Telangana assembly will go to polls along with Rajasthan. The Model Code of Conduct comes into force with immediate effect, Election Commissioner OP Rawat said. 

Elections in Telangana were necessitated after the Governor accepted Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's recommendation to dissolve the Assembly. The elections were scheduled to be held along with the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 but at a massive political rally, the CM sought a fresh mandate to continue working for the people. 

It is being suspected that the decision to advance the state elections is primarily due to the fear that Lok Sabha elections could have an impact on how the state votes for its own government. It is also feared that local issues could get hijacked if state assembly elections happen around the same time as the Lok Sabha elections.

(With Agency Inputs)