TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ The Election Commission is set to ask the government to amend laws to disqualify candidates listed in charge sheets for bribing candidates, a move which comes days after it cancelled a Tamil Nadu assembly bypoll following allegations of use of money to influence electors.
The poll watchdog has decided to write to the Law Ministry seeking changes in the Representation of the People Act to ensure that candidates contesting Lok Sabha and assembly polls are disqualified for up to five years once they are chargesheeted by a court, sources in the poll panel said.
Earlier this month, the commission had indefinitely cancelled the R K Nagar assembly bypoll after it found that money power was used to influence voters. The bypoll was to be held on April 12. It was necessitated following the demise of J Jayalalithaa. In its lengthy order, the commission had pointed out that political parties and their top leaders used “innovative ways” in bribing voters in the RK Nagar Assembly seat to outwit law enforcement authorities mandated with keeping an eye on poll expenditure.
