My vote is not for sale, a campaign for cleaner K'taka polls

Bangalore, April 6: It is a well-known fact that come elections in Karnataka, money, liquor and gifts flow freely to woo voters by political parties.

In order to make elections in Karnataka cleaner and free from corruption, Karnataka Election Watch (KEW), the state chapter of National Election Watch (NEW), is starting a campaign titled "My vote is not for sale".

Karnataka Assembly Elections are slated on May 5.

"The campaign "My vote is not for sale" is to counter excessive spending in elections and bribing of voters through money, liquor, gifts," said a member of KEW.

The campaign include street plays in different districts, distribution of pamphlets, SMS campaign, video screenings of well known film celebrities giving the same message, and help from the media to reach a very large number of voters.

Moreoever, KEW is also conducting awareness programmes to urge people to vote in the forthcoming elections.

"KEW also urges voters to register and go out and vote. But they should make an informed choice and get relevant information of their candidates before voting," added the KEW member.

KEW will also disseminate candidate information to voters giving details of their assets, growth in assets, criminal records if any, attendance in Assembly, questions asked and so on.

KEW will soon release information on MLAs, Karnataka budget, contribution report of political parties, their Income Tax returns, and expenses of political parties during elections in two more press conferences in the coming weeks.

NEW h­­­­as recently analysed the affidavits of 24 out of 27 cabinet ministers including the Chief Minister, submitted to the Election Commission of India from the state of Karnataka.

NEW report says 42% ministers i.e. (10 out of 24 analysed) have self declared criminal cases as per their affidavits filed during the last held Assembly Elections in 2008.

Two ministers out of these 24 analysed have declared serious IPC charges like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, theft etc. against them, says the NEW report.

OneIndia News