J&K CEO seeks political parties' cooperation for smooth conduct of polls

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar Wednesday sought cooperation from political parties for the smooth conduct of Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Kumar interacted with the representatives of recognised political parties in the state on various issues related to the conduct of parliamentary elections, an official spokesperson said.

The CEO held wide ranging discussions with the political leaders for the smooth, peaceful and transparent conduct of the elections and sought their views and suggestions for further improvements and to ensure larger participation of voters, he said.

While seeking cooperation from the political parties to ensure complete transparency in the electoral process, Kumar urged them to abide by the guidelines of the Election Commission (EC) with regard to the implementation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) which has been enforced with the announcement of parliamentary elections.

He advised them to sensitise their workers, polling agents about the scope and extent of MCC and cooperate fully in strict adherence of the same.

Prominent among those present included National Panthers Party (NPP) chairman Harshdev Singh, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader R K Bali, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Rajinder Sharma, National Conference (NC) leader Pradeep Kumar Bali among others.

The CEO urged them to make use of EC's App 'C-Vigil' which relates to dealing with the complaints with regard to the violation of MCC by any department, political party or individual and complaints can be filed on-line which are being dealt by the commission quickly.

He also urged them to make optimal use of 'Suvidha App' to avail on-line facilities with regard to seeking any kind of permission or registration related to the election process from the election authorities.

Kumar assured the political parties of all necessary assistance related to the election process by the state election department and asked them to bring any difficulty to his notice.

He also briefed them about some new initiatives taken by the EC to ensure free, fair and transparent elections across the state.

The spokesman said the leaders sought some clarifications with regard to the MCC violations, election related expenditure and publicity from the CEO.

They also suggested several measures to further improve the electoral process, he said.