Chief Electoral Officer Shri Anupam Rajan held a meeting with officials of all recognized national political parties at Nirvachan Sadan, Bhopal on Tuesday. He gave detailed information about the Model Code of Conduct effective in relation to the Lok Sabha elections 2024 in the state. He told that M.P. Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in four phases. In the first phase, elections will be held in Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency number-11 Sidhi, number-12 Shahdol, number-13 Jabalpur, number-14 Mandla, number-15 Balaghat and Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency number-16 Chhindwara. The nomination process for the first phase will start from Wednesday 20th March. The last date for filing nomination papers is Wednesday 27 March. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on Thursday 28th March. Candidates who have filed nominations will be able to withdraw their names till Saturday 30th March. Voting for the first phase will take place on Friday, April 19. Counting of votes in all phases will take place on June 4.
In the present situation, there are 5 crore 64 lakh 76 thousand 110 voters in Madhya Pradesh. This includes 2 crore 90 lakh 13 thousand 307 male voters, 2 crore 74 lakh 61 thousand 575 female voters and 1 thousand 228 other (third gender) voters.
Rajan said that the total number of polling stations in the state is 64 thousand 523. A proposal to set up auxiliary polling stations in the identified 367 polling stations with more than 1500 voters has been sent to the Election Commission of India. He said that the distribution of voter slips in the Lok Sabha elections will be started in separate phases 10 days before the voting date. This work will be completed 5 days before the voting day.
Rajan said that maximum 4 forms can be filled by each candidate in the election. Every candidate will also have to submit an affidavit in the prescribed form along with his nomination paper. The affidavits submitted by the candidates will be displayed within 24 hours on the website of the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer www.ceomadhyapradesh.nic.in . The candidate will also have to give information about his criminal cases in the affidavit, so that voters can know about the background of such candidates. Besides, political parties will also have to publish announcements in newspapers and TV channels on 3 different dates stating the basis for selection of candidates with criminal cases. Within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate, it will have to be published in Form C-7 in the newspaper, social media platform and party website.
Rajan said that with the announcement of the Election Commission of India, the Model Code of Conduct is effective in the entire state. The provisions of the Model Code of Conduct are applicable to the candidates, political parties and State and Central Government as per the guidelines of the Commission. Control rooms and complaint cells have become functional in all the districts. Action against property defacement is continuing in all Lok Sabha parliamentary constituencies. So far, action has been taken against defacement of property at 2 lakh 76 thousand 892 government buildings, 1 lakh 88 thousand 203 public properties and 57 thousand 992 private properties.
Rajan informed that C-VIGIL app is available for citizens to lodge election related complaints. Through this app, if citizens provide any live photo, video and audio as complaint regarding violation of Model Code of Conduct, then action will be taken on the complaint within the next 100 minutes. He said that during the Model Code of Conduct, the use of loudspeakers will be completely prohibited from 10 pm to 6 am the next day.
