A day before Gujarat votes, the High Court on Monday allowed a part of a petition filed by an election agent of an Independent candidate contesting from Porbandar constituency and directed the Election Commission to permit the petitioner to appoint polling agents from the constituency as a whole and not necessarily from among residents of the particular Gondal Assembly segment area. The petitioner had sought a choice of polling agent from a broader area of Porbandar constituency instead of one from a nearby village/polling booth in Gondal, citing threatening demeanor of two persons, canvassing for the BJP — Jayrajsinh Jadeja (former three-time MLA of Gondal) and Aniruddhsinh Jadeja. While the Election Commission guideline for the qualification of a polling agent, says that “agents shall be ordinarily resident and electors of the concerned polling areas or of the neighbouring polling station,” it is not a necessity. Keeping in mind the same, petitioner Rajesh Sakhiya had requested the Election Commission on April 12 to permit him to “appoint some other person who though is not a resident of that very polling station (area), but is a resident of some other polling station (area) of Porbandar Parliamentary Constituency.” However, no action was taken and no clarification was issued by the Election Commission as a result the petitioner alleged that such non-consideration was “clearly illegal and arbitrary.” Advocate Dipen Desai, representing him, said the HC noted that the application thus filed on April 12, was late, given the elections were merely 10 days away. “The court also noted that responding to such applications is not the only job for EC. Therefore, the non-consideration (of the application by EC) was neither termed illegal nor arbitrary (as had been prayed for in the petition), or otherwise,” said Desai. The petition alleges, “Jayrajsinh (who has been convicted of murder and is currently out on bail) is openly threatening the voters to vote under the particular fashion. However no voter is ready to file any complaint because of fear. Another convict Aniruddhsinh Jadeja who has been convicted of offence under the TADA Act and under Section 302 (murder) is also freely moving in the Porbandar constituency and is canvassing for the candidate of the party in power.” The petition submitted the residents of various villages and polling booths were not ready to act as polling agents of the candidates “just out of fear of Jayrarjsinh Jadeja and Anirudhsinh Jadeja. Fear is so much that the villagers/residents of the polling booth do not even wish to declare their names showing support for any other candidate leave alone acting as polling agents.” The petitioner, who is the election agent of Independent Porbandar candidate Jignesh Rank, also sought that the court declare 113 polling stations as critical in Gondal Assembly segment. Desai said the HC noted it is too short a time to declare the same and hence this part of the petition was rejected. “Moreover, during the course of the trial it came to light that 23 of 113 polling stations had been declared sensitive in March itself although this was unknown to the petitioner when filing the petition,” he said. For the remaining 90 thus, if declared sensitive and critical, there is not enough time to take necessary logistical recourse such as deployment of paramilitary troops.”
