Notices issued to key bypoll candidates

KOPPAL: Bypoll candidates Sanganna Karadi (BJP), Basavaraj Hitnal (Congress) and Pradeepagouda Patil (JD(S)) have been served notices for using vehicles during their poll campaign without requisite permission and failing to submit expenditure incurred for the same. All the three candidates have utilised several motorbikes and vehicles arbitrarily and even got poll pamphlets printed without permission.As per norms, all the contestants have to get their poll expenditure accounts verified in three phases, on September 15-16, September 20 and September 25. In the first phase itself, all the three candidates have submitted flawed accounts of poll expenditure and received notices, raising suspicions about their credibility.Meanwhile, four independent candidates out of the 14 in the fray have not bothered to submit poll expenditure accounts for verification.Assistant Commissioner and Returning Officer for the bypoll Sharanabasappa Malli told Express on Saturday that all the seven candidates have been instructed to reply to the notices immediately. If they fail to reply, poll observers would report the same to the Election Commission for further action, he noted.However, Karadi Sanganna, Basavaraj Hitnal and Pradeepagouda Patil could not be contacted for reaction.