Ahead of LS polls, 70343 licensed firearms deposited in Himachal Pradesh
Revealing this, a spokesperson of the Himachal Pradesh Election Department here on Tuesday, said: “Besides, these 3278 weapons have been impounded or cancelled.”
State Transport and Civil Supplies minister G S Bali on Monday sought ban on sale of liquor 15 days before polling is scheduled and said politicians had used liquor to influence voters during the recently held assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.
Talking to mediapersons, Bali said liquor was widely used to woo the electorate and he had even approached the Election Commission to stop the malpractice. “However, the Election Commission officials cited lack of adequate manpower in curbing the menace,” he alleged.
Terming the trend as disturbing, Bali said the Election Commission should have taken stringent action against such practices, though no concrete action or plan was in place to curb the trend.
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Bali demanded that there should be complete ban on sale of liquor, at least 15 days before the scheduled the date of polling.
He alleged the complete exercise of conducting assembly polls in the state wasn’t correct as there weren’t proper arrangements in place at many polling stations.
He even raised questions over the credibility of EVM machines and said the Election Commission should issue clarification amidst various allegations of hacking.Bali claimed that the huge voters turnout may go in favour of the Congress party as the people of the state were against ill-conceived central schemes such as demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST). The hike in the prices of LPG would also go in favour of the party, he said.
“There was no anti-incumbency against Congress government and the people of the state were satisfied with government’s functioning in five years’ rule,” he said.
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