New Delhi, February 26
The Election Commission
has disqualified 3,300 persons from contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha
and Assembly poll in the country for their failure to submit their poll
expenditure accounts.
Briefing reporters Deputy Election Commissioner
A.N. Jha said today that 3,300 persons, who contested the poll between
2001 and 2004 failed to submit their expenditure accounts to the
commission.
He said they would be disqualified from contesting the
poll in the country for a period of three years. The electoral law
states that the contestants should submit their expenditure account
within 45 days of the completion of the election process.
He said
Uttar Pradesh tops the list of such candidates with about 1,000 persons
failing to submit their expenditure account.
Asked whether the
provisions of disqualification were too lenient, he said the stricter
provisions were being considered as a part of the electoral reforms
process.
Mr Jha said the complete list of persons who had been
disqualified would be provided to the Chief Electoral Officers, to
ensure that their nominations were rejected.
The Deputy Election
Commissioner said the commission would hold by-election to seven
Assembly seats.
Of these one seat each in Delhi, Kerala, Mizoram and
two seats each in Kerala and Bihar.
He said the Union Home Ministry
had sent a fresh proposal on the deployment of central paramilitary
forces and they were being fine tuned.
