NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Succumbing to pressure from political parties and the public at large about the inordinate delay in the counting of votes, the Election Commission (EC) has rescheduled the counting for March 2.The first election results would start trickling in from March 3, and the complete results would be available by March 5, three days before Jammu and Kashmir go to the polls. In the three constituencies of Udhampur, Baramulla and Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, where polling will take place on March 7, the counting will begin on March 8.Earlier, the EC had announced that the counting of votes would begin on March 8, after the completion of the four-phased general elections in the entire country. But political parties had protested that the week-long suspense was unnecessary and best avoided in view of the need for safeguarding ballot boxes against tampering.``The country wanted it,'' Deputy Election Commissioner Subas Pani said, justifying the change in the counting date.A full meeting of the Commission, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill today, also decided to shift the polling date in Mizoram and Nagaland by one day from February 22 to February 23. As February 22 is a Sunday, these states had asked for a change in the polling date to enable its large Christian community to cast their votes. Meanwhile, the EC has declined recognition to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) and Trinamul Congress (TC). Disclosing this in an interview to the Home TV, Gill said that as a result, these parties will not have access to the time sanctioned by the EC for recognised parties on Doordarshan and AIR. He added they would not get free copies of the electoral rolls either.The Election Commission (EC) today sought ``full details'' from the Cabinet Secretary on the Tata Airline project, which was approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) last week.Deputy Election Commissioner Subas Pani told mediapersons that a meeting of the full Commission held today sought a ``comprehensive'' report from Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramaniam, following press reports that the FIPB had approved the project.``The Commission has, as of now, not looked into this case,'' Pani said, adding that the EC had received complaints from different political parties about the matter.Newspaper reports had implied that the FIPB had obtained the go-ahead from the Commission before approving the Rs 1,700 crore airline project.
