LIC premium, pilgrimage to Tirupathi are freebies in Karnataka elections this year

The Model Code of Conduct comes into force only once the election dates are announced by the Election Commission of India. Curtailing freebies has been a major challenge for the Commission in every Indian election

New Delhi, Feb 07: With elections come the freebies. One of the most crucial elections this year are the Karnataka assembly elections and the BJP and Congress are in a tight battle.

Many leaders in the state are taking advantage of the fact that there is no poll conduct in place as yet. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announcement election schedule and there is no model code of conduct in place as yet.

In a bid to woo the voters, leaders from the BJP and Congress distributed free cookers. In addition to this, reports said that dinner sets, digital clocks and other gifts were also doled out to induce the voters.

Another report said that some politicians had even found to be sponsoring pilgrimages to the voters. The most preferred destinations are Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh, Shirdi in Maharashtra and the Manjunatha Swami Temple in Karnataka's Dharamshala.

New agency PTI reported that in a constituency in Bengaluru, dinner sets had been distributed to voters. A lady said on the condition of anonymity that she had received a call to collect a dinner set. "At first I thought it was a Pran, but when I went to check, they were really distributing dinner sets," she also said.

In another segment in Bengaluru, some candidates are alleged to have paid life insurance premium to a section of the voters.

However the authorities have been alerted and truckloads of pressure cookers and kitchen utensils had been seized.

Manoj Kumar Meena, Karnataka's Chief Electoral Officer told PTI that the Model Code of Conduct comes into force from the day the election dates are announced. However there are ways to curb such practices before the poll process begins, he also said.

He also said, "the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect from the date of the elections. We deliberated on what we can do in the light of the recent media reports which allege that the political parties and its elected representatives are indulging in such activities to garner votes."

A meeting of all the enforcement agencies has been called for and they have been directed to take action in this regard.

Meena added," we asked them (authorities) why they don't they use those laws and see that action can be against those people. The Commercial Tax department can raid godowns and find out whether there is any violation of the GST Act."

He also added that the Commercial Tax department had raided two warehouses in Chikkamagaluru and Tumakuru and found that those goods were not authorised. Accordingly fines had been imposed, Meena said.

Freebies in election:

In India, freebies refer to the incentives by political leaders to voters. These include, laptops, smartphones, household appliances, cash and food among others. Such promised have come under criticism as it is amounts to bribing the voter and also undermining the democratic process. The Election Commission of India has guidelines in place to curb such practices, but the enforcement has remained challenging. Till date it remains a controversial issue in any election in India.