New Delhi, January 23: The year 2018 will be a defining year for political dynamics in India. The voting schedule for the three northeastern states of Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Tripura have been announced by the Election Commission of India after much delay. Former Chief Election Commissioner A K Joti, earlier this month, announced that Tripura will go to polls on February 18 while polling in Meghalaya and Nagaland will be held on February 27.

The counting for all the three states will be on March 3. The incumbent assembly tenure in Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Tripura will end on March 6, 13 and 14 respectively. It must be noted that the strength of the three assemblies is 60 members each.

At the time of General Elections to the Lok Sabha in 1998, a new initiative for State funding of recognized political parties through free use of the State-Owned Television and Radio was introduced under directions of the Commission vide its Order, dated 16th January 1998. The said scheme was subsequently extended in all the General Elections to the State Assemblies held after 1998 and General Elections to the Lok Sabha in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. The facilities of use of broadcast time and telecast time will be available only to ‘National Parties’. There is no ‘Recognized State Parties’ in respect of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.

THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE SCHEME ARE AS FOLLOWS:

The facilities will be available from the Regional Kendra of the All India Radio and Doordarshan and in the headquarters of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and relayed by other stations within the above-mentioned States.

Time allotted for Telecast/Broadcast:

A base time of 45 minutes will be given to each National Party and Recognized State Party (recognized in respect of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura) uniformly on the Regional Kendras of Doordarshan network and All India Radio network in the above-mentioned States.

The additional time to be allotted to the parties has been decided on the basis of the poll performance of the parties in the last assembly election in the above-mentioned States concerned. In a single session of broadcast, no party will be allocated more than 15 minutes.

Date of Telecast/Broadcast:

The period of broadcast and telecast will be between the last date of filing the nominations and two days before the date of poll in the above-mentioned States. The Prasar Bharati Corporation in consultation with the Commission will decide the actual date and time for broadcast and telecast. This will be subject to the broad technical constraints governing the actual time of transmission available with the Doordarshan and All India Radio.

Guidelines for observance in Telecasts/Broadcasts:

  1. The telecasts/broadcasts on Doordarshan/AIR will not permit:

  2. Criticism of other countries;

  3. Attack on religions or communities;

  4. anything obscene or defamatory;

  5. incitement of violence;

  6. anything amounting to contempt of court;

  7. aspersion against the integrity of the President and Judiciary;

  8. anything affecting the unity, sovereignty and integrity of the Nation;

  9. any criticism by name of any person;

With the amendments to the Representation of People Act, 1951 vide "Election and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2003" and the rules notified thereunder, equitable time sharing for campaigning by recognized political parties on electronic media now has a statutory basis. In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of the Explanation below section 39A of the Representation of People Act, 1951, the Central Government has notified all such broadcasting media which are owned or controlled or financed wholly or substantially by funds provided to them by the Central Government as the electronic media for the purposes of that section.

Therefore, the Commission has decided to extend the said scheme of equitable time sharing on electronic media through Prasar Bharati Corporation to the ensuing General Election to the State Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura -2018.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 23, 2018 06:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).