New Delhi:
Lauding the Election Commission for its "bold" decision of scrapping the Rajya Sabha poll in Jharkhand, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has asked it to get a thorough probe conducted by the CBI or any other agency into the events since the start of election process.
In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi, Mr Sinha noted that Jharkhand had become a "happy hunting ground for unscrupulous moneybags" and asked the poll body to investigate the role of MLAs and why they agreed to sign the nomination papers of independent candidates. He demanded that those found guilty of electoral malpractices be barred from contesting election "for the maximum permissible period".
"Those found guilty of electoral malpractices, both amongst candidates and their proposers, should be barred from contesting elections for the maximum permissible period," he wrote to Mr Quraishi.
The BJP leader also asked the CEC to separately proceed against those legislators found guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act, they being public servants.
He also demanded that the expenditure limit for RS poll be reduced drastically to a few thousand rupees, as they are indirect elections and said Mr Quraishi should ask all candidates
who filed their nominations to submit their election expenditure statements and get the same strictly scrutinized from the investigation agency with reference to the facts emerging during the investigation.
Mr Sinha asked EC to exercise strict vigilance from the start of election process in future, as done in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls and feared "what would have happened if the cash would not have been seized and the Commission not cancelled the election".