During Assembly poll 2023, ‘Know Your Candidate’ a special mobile application will be available for electors to know the particulars and criminal antecedents of any candidate.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, Rajiv Kumar informed that that the app has been developed to provide wide publicity and greater awareness regarding criminal antecedents of contesting candidates to ensure transparent election.Through this app the residents can know the criminal background of their candidates.
“Now, if any candidate has a criminal background, the voters need to know this so that they can make informed choices. So, this particular application, Know Your Candidate (KYC) allows the voters to see the criminal background of any candidate,” the CEC said.
Moreover, the Election Commission has directed all candidates with criminal background to publish in the newspapers and news channels regarding the cases registered against them.
“The Commission has mandated that each candidate if he has a criminal background must publish it in newspaper three times prominently and also in news channels that these are the cases against me so that the voters can take an informed choice. If he wants to still vote that is the voter’s choice, our job is to put it in public domain, publicize it as much as possible,” Kumar said.
He also said that political parties who are giving tickets to such candidates must also explain in the newspapers and give a justification as to why they have selected such a person with a criminal background in that particular constituency.