Hyderabad:
The notification for next month's crucial by-elections to one Lok Sabha and 18 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh will be issued on Friday.
Nominations will be accepted from 11 am today to 3 pm on May 25 and the polling will be held on June 12, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Bhanwar Lal told reporters in Hyderabad on Thursday.
A whopping Rs 14.50 crore worth of unaccounted money and over one lakh litres of illicit liquor was seized during police checks as part of enforcement of the poll code, Mr Lal said.
While the Income Tax department has appointed 12 nodal officers, a request will be made for appointing more in view of the large amount of money having been seized already, he said.
Also, three IPS officers and 20 IAS officers have been appointed as police observers and general observers respectively, he said.
Excise officers of bordering Tamil Nadu and Karnataka will be requested to help in checking the flow of illicit liquor into the state as well, Mr Lal added.
The CEO also held a meeting with the representatives of recognised political parties here to brief them about various aspects of the by-elections and the model code of conduct.
Noting that the situation is under control in all poll-bound districts, he said that political parties too reported the same "except for two or three incidents".
Bypolls to 16 of the 18 assembly seats were necessitated as the sitting Congress MLAs were disqualified by the Assembly Speaker in December 2011 for switching loyalty to Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and voting against the Congress government during a floor test.
While another sitting member had quit in support of Mr Jagan, actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi quit as MLA following his election to the Rajya Sabha.
By-election in the lone Lok Sabha seat of Nellore was necessitated because the sitting Congress member quit in support of Mr Jagan.
The Election Commission has consented to send 118 companies of Central Armed Forces out of the requested 139 companies, the CEO said adding the Andhra Pradesh Special Police and Armed Reserve police would also be deployed.
Replying to a query, he said a complaint has been received about the seizure of a huge amount of money from the house of a relative of Congress Rajya Sabha member Chiranjeevi in Chennai and it has been sent to the Election Commission for perusal.
Asked about the speeches made by some leaders with some religious overtones, he said the matter has been referred to the commission.