Issuing this warning at a press meet here, chief electoral officer Anil Kumar Jha, urged the public to alert election officials if they came across allurements being offered by candidates to voters.
“Accepting cash or gifts is an equally punishable offence under the law. If found guilty, those involved invite an imprisonment of up to one year. With only two days left for polling, election officials have been told to increase surveillance on inducements,” Jha said.
Jha said voting in more than one constituency was also a punishable offence. Even if a voter has his name registered in more than one polling station, he or she should cast vote only in one place.
“Attempting to vote in some other person's name was also not acceptable. Persons found guilty in such cases would be jailed for a year,” he said.
Election officials said they had already received more than a lakh postal ballots. “We have got requests from bus drivers and conductors of the State transport corporation to be allowed to cast their votes through postal ballots as they have been deployed on poll duty. We are examining the same,” he said.
A senior official from the Election Commission said the total unauthorised cash seized so far had crossed Rs 14 crore. Also, 67,000 litres of illegal liquor worth Rs 4.97 crore have been seized, he added.
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