Bengaluru: Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat, on Friday April 6, said the Commission will take prompt action to bar BJP’s plan to host “community meals” as part of culmination of its Mushti Dhanya Abhiyan if they are found violating model code of conduct.

“Nobody has formally brought this to our notice. However, the Commission will collect facts on it, and if they (hosting of community meals) are found violating model code of conduct, immediate action will be called for,” he told reporters here.

The Abhiyan is BJP’s campaign where farmers and BJP leaders will have a meal cooked from the grains collected as part of the campaign and take an oath to prevent farmers’ suicides. The community meals will be hosted on April 8, 9 and 10 in all towns with a population of over 10,000 and some places having 5,000 population, across Karnataka. BJP State in charge P Muralidhar Rao had defended the community meals by saying these are not owned by BJP and will be doing it in a decentralised way.

On former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s complaint lodged with Commission against Siddaramaiah government for misusing its machinery for electoral gain, Rawat said that his office will take stern action against anyone meddling with the election machinery. “The Commission is seized of Deve Gowda’s complaints. We are collecting facts and investigating. If any extra-constitutional personalities try to meddle into the affairs of election machinery, the Commission will come down heavily on those people,” he said.

Gowda had submitted a memorandum alleging Siddaramaiah government machinery was being misused for electoral gain and also questioned the nature of Kempaiah’s appointment and work. He had made six allegations against the government, including preferential posting of officials in districts of Mandya, Mysuru, Ramanagara and Hassan.

Replying to a query, Rawat said political parties have requested the Commission to effectively check the flagrant distribution of money to bribe and induce voters. They also demanded effective steps to be taken to prevent distribution of freebies by certain NGOs and trusts, who are serving as proxies for some political functionaries, he said.

Political parties also requested the Commission to ensure the availability of BLOs at polling booth with list on day of special drive for enrolment on April 8, Rawat said.

He also said that, as per the final electoral rolls published on February 28, there are 496.56 lakh electors in the state with 251.59 lakh male and 244.76 lakh female.

Rawat said a total of 9.17 lakh names, including 4.88 lakh names of shifted, 3.67 lakh dead voters and 0.61 lakh repeat entries, have been removed from the electoral rolls during the special summary revision 2018. Presently, there are a total of 56,696 polling stations at 41,314 polling locations, but will go up as voters’ number increases, he said.

EVM with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail will be used in all 58,546 polling stations of 224 assembly constituencies, Rawat said.