The BJP on Wednesday urged the Election Commission to videograph the voting process at all polling stations during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and set up booths in complexes housing high-rise buildings.
In a memorandum, the BJP also urged the poll panel to consider reforming the approval process for political parties' media content to make it faster, allowing them adequate time to plan their campaign. It also requested the Election Commission to ensure there is no ambiguity in the rule pertaining to putting flags and making wall paintings by party workers at their homes during polls. "There should be clarity on this," they demanded.
A BJP delegation comprising Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and party national general secretary Arun Singh met the poll panel with the demands. "The BJP keeps making efforts to see how the entire poll process could be made more and more transparent and the voters' involvement in the elections be further increased. Our delegation made some requests to the EC (in this regard)," Vaishnaw told reporters after the meeting at the Election Commission.
He said the BJP delegation urged the poll panel to set up booths at high-rise apartment complexes in urban areas as much as possible so that maximum eligible voters at such residential buildings could exercise their franchise.
"Our second request was that video recordings be done at 100 per cent polling booths (during the elections)," Vaishnaw said. At present, videography is done at 50 per cent polling booths only, he said, adding that 100 percent coverage of the polling booths will ensure proper documentation of everything happening there and it will increase people’s faith in the country’s vibrant democracy.
Over 12 lakh polling stations will be set up across the country for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, according to the Election Commission. Vaishnaw said the BJP delegation also made some request with regards to operational issues.
"We requested for beginning reforms in the process of granting approval to the media content of political parties. The approval process should be made faster so that every political party gets enough time to present their views and mould their campaign," he told reporters.
