Bengaluru, Sep 20: Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Tuesday informed the Legislative Assembly that there are 9,432 police constable vacancies in the state, and 5,000 among them will be filled up this year.

The Minister was responding to a question on shortage of police constables in the state raised by BJP MLA Preetham Gowda in the Legislative Assembly, during the question hour.

"When our government came to power the police vacancy in the state was about 22,000... at one point in time out of total 1 lakh police there was about 35,000 vacancy, but today the vacancy is only 9,432," Jnanendra said.

Noting that on September 12, 2022 a notification has been issued to select 3,500 constables, he said to select another 1,500 civil constables a notification will be issued in a week's time.

"So 5,000 vacancies will be filled up this year, and there will not be too many vacancies soon. The respite is that in 20 years this is the first time with very less vacancies," he said, adding that all necessary measures will be taken to ensure that there is no hindrance or shortage of police in maintaining law and order.

Intervening, JD(S) MLA H K Kumaraswamy said as per rules there should be 22 constables in every police station, but whenever asked either some of them are on deputation or on the bandobast duty.

".... how to function when such is the situation? The government must ensure that there are adequate number of constables at the station," he said.

Responding to this, the Minister said the civil police are generally not used or deputed for bandobast, but depending on the situation locally they might be used as per necessity.

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Lucknow (Farrukhabad): A viral video has surfaced showing a 16-year-old son of a BJP worker allegedly casting eight votes to the saffron party during the ongoing general elections in Uttar Pradesh. The video has sparked controversy, and the opposition has urged for prompt action from the Election Commission of India, reports scroll.in.

The video shared by the Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on micro-blogging site ‘X’, showed the youngster recording himself while casting multiple times in a series of instances. The incident reportedly took place in Khiri Pamaran village, which falls under the Aliganj Assembly constituency within the Farrukhabad parliamentary seat. Mukesh Rajput, the sitting MP, is the BJP candidate in this constituency. Polling in Farrukhabad occurred on May 13 during the fourth phase of the general election.

In the viral video, the youngster is seen casting eight votes in total, all for the BJP, one by one with different clippings.

The youngster in the video has been identified as Rajan Singh Thakur, confirmed his father, Anil Singh Thakur to the Scroll.in. Anil Singh Thakur is the gram pradhan (village head) of Khiri Pamaran and a member of the BJP.

Anil defending his son told the Scroll that the ‘Video misrepresented his son,’ and claimed that the voting was done when the machine was being tested in some instances and other clipping of him voting on behalf of mentally and physically disabled voters was merged and made into a video.

Despite the Anil's caims, the video has drawn significant criticism. Subhash Chandra Prajapati, the additional district magistrate of Farrukhabad, confirmed to the Scroll that the administration will file a case soon. He mentioned that the returning officer is investigating the matter following a directive from the chief electoral officer in Lucknow.

The opposition has been vocal in its criticism, with Akhilesh Yadav demanding action from the Election Commission. In his social media post, Yadav accused the BJP of undermining the electoral process and described the party's booth committee as a "loot committee." The Congress party also called on the Election Commission to take action, in a ‘X’ post the party wrote, “Dear Election Commission…are you watching..a boy is voting 8-8 times ... .at least wake up now.”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, took to ‘X’ to express, “Fearing and seeing their defeat, the BJP is attempting to undermine democracy by pressuring government machinery to deny the mandate. The Congress expects all officers performing election duties to remember their constitutional responsibilities despite any pressure from those in power. Otherwise, once the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc government is formed, actions will be taken to ensure that anyone will think ten times before violating their 'Oath to the Constitution'."

Following the video's circulation, Naval Kishor Shakya, the Samajwadi Party candidate in Farrukhabad, filed a complaint with the district election officer. Shakya's complaint alleges that Rajan Singh Thakur cast votes after snatching voter information slips from other voters and that he was assisted by Dinesh Thakur, the local police station's station house officer. Shakya has called for re-polling at the affected polling center.

In a related incident earlier in May, Gujarat Police arrested two BJP workers for allegedly casting bogus votes and live-streaming the act on social media in the Dahod constituency. The Election Commission conducted re-polling at the affected booth following the incident.

The opposition INDIA bloc, including the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, has repeatedly accused the Election Commission of failing to take prompt action against election model code of conduct violations.