Punjab: Party that urges people not to vote

Chandigarh, Feb 9: At a time when all political parties in Punjabare sweating it out to woo voters, a party is going to the people witha rather unusual appeal--'Go to polling booth but don't vote'.

TheInternational Democratic Party (IDP) has launched a campaign in thestate, ahead of the February 13 assembly elections, to convince themnot to vote if they do not like any of the candidates in the fray.

Talking to UNI, IDP state president Karnail Singh Jakhepal saidunder Section 49(O) of the Election Rule-1961, a voter may refuse tovote after making an entry in the polling booth. He only has to sign aregister kept with the presiding officer or put his thumb impression,he added.

He said the Section 49 (O) was basically aimed at preventing bogusvoting in the elections but the IDP believed that the people could useit for ''rejecting'' the candidates till the voter formally gets a'right to reject' column on ballot paper or electronic in future.

When the IDP president's attention was drawn to the Supreme Court'srecent dismissal of a PIL seeking 'right to reject' for voters, he saidthe Supreme Court had ruled that the government was entitled to take adecision in this regard. Meanwhile, the IDP had decided to cover over100 of the 117 constituencies in the state to spread their uniquemessage.

''We will distribute 75,000 posters and 10,000 pamphlets inthis regard.'' Asked for the rationale behind such a campaign, MrJakhepal said the elections in India had become a game of money andmuscle power and the kind of candidates the political parties werefielding these days were not suitable to be voted.

He said when the 'refusal to vote' campaign would gain acceptanceat a bigger level, it would make the right kind of pressure on thegovernment to grant the voter the formal right to reject. ''And theformal right to reject will finally put a pressure on various partiesto choose the right kind of candidates,'' he added.

Mr Jakhepal said though the IDP was a political party, founded in 1986, it did not field its own candidates in the elections.

''Our main purpose is to create soico-political awareness amongthe people and that can be better done without contestingelections,''he said.

UNI