Put off election 8212; parties

Gandhinagar, July 13: Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat may be postponed to September 11 or thereabouts if an all-party delegation from the Stat...

Gandhinagar, July 13: Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat may be postponed to September 11 or thereabouts if an all-party delegation from the State, which is going to meet Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill in New Delhi on Wednesday, succeeds in its mission.

The State administration is also said to have conveyed the difficulties it might face in conducting the elections if the schedule is not changed. Separate representations are also being made to the CEC.

While two senior ministers, Suresh Mehta and Ashok Bhatt, have already rushed to New Delhi and requested the CEC to reschedule the polls by a few days in view of the Janmashtmi festival, other BJP and Congress leaders will soon follow them. The State BJP executive as well as organisational wings have also urged the CEC to postpone the elections scheduled for September 4 by at least a week. State BJP leaders Rajendrasinh Rana and Vijay Rupani also left this evening for the national Capital to meet Gill on Wednesday.

Former Congress minister Navinbhai Shastri said party leaders would also go to Delhi to urge the CEC to change the election dates. Shastri said there were several problems such as the monsoon which would make preparation for elections a difficult task for the administration.

Congress chief whip in the Assembly Naresh Raval said the demand for postponing the polls was reasonable and that elections could be held around September 10 by which time the festival would be over and the monsoon would be on the wane. State Chief Secretary L N S Mukundan is also reported to have written to the EC to fix some other date, citing Janmashtmi as coinciding with the poll schedule.

In a memorandum to Gill, both Suresh Mehta and Ashok Bhatt contended that a large number of voters observe fast and perform other rituals on September 3 and 4 as part of Janmashtami celebrations. They added that the entire administrative machinery in the State would be engaged in maintaining law and order during that period. Hence, the EC should postpone the September 4 polls and fix some other date instead.

An official statement here this evening claimed that Gill had assured the ministers that the Election Commission would look into the matter.

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Meanwhile, Vijay Rupani, before leaving for Delhi this evening, told reporters that the EC should postpone the Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat to September 11, as the Janmashtmi festival was mainly celebrated in Saurashtra and Kutch regions. There were nearly one crore voters spread over eight Parliamentary constituencies in these regions.

Significantly, the BJP had won all the eight seats from these regions in the 1998 general elections.

When queried, the BJP leader said the State party leadership had also apprised Union Home Minister L K Advani of the situation and requested him to make a strong representation to the EC to change the poll schedule.

Rupani said Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel was also in touch with State Congress leaders Amarsinh Chaudhary and C D Patel. He had requested them to make a similar representation to the EC.