Haryana, 25 August: Citing vacations both before and after the election date that may result in lower voter turnout, the Haryana branch of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has written to the Election Commission demanding a brief postponement of the assembly poll scheduled for October 1.
Congressman Deepender Hooda verbally attacks BJP for coming up with “childish excuses” ahead of Haryana Assembly poll
Abhay Chautala’s INLD also requested a postponement of the elections, while the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) attacked the BJP, alleging that the ruling party was in a panic due to a fear of approaching defeat.
The letter was sent to the poll commission by Mohan Lal Badoli, the head of the party’s state unit on Saturday.
Pankaj Agarwal, the chief electoral officer of Haryana, confirmed that the commission obtained a copy of the communication via email on Friday.
“We have received the communication from state BJP and forwarded it to the Election Commission,” Agarwal stated to PTI.
A member of the BJP’s state election management committee, Varinder Garg stated, “We have reasoned that the Assembly election date of October 1 (Tuesday) is preceded by a weekend and followed by more holidays which might hit the voting percentage as people tend to go on vacation on long weekends.” According to Varinder Garg, September 28–29 are Saturday & Sunday and October 1 is a poll holiday. There are two other holidays that fall on October 2 and October 3, respectively: Gandhi Jayanti and Maharaja Agrasen Jayanti.
In this regard, we have written to the Election Commission. Any other day after the run of holidays ends should be great for higher attendance,” Varinder Garg told PTI over the phone.
Employees who take a day off on September 30 will receive six holidays. In his letter to the EC, Mohan Lal Badoli stated that there is a good chance that some families will take vacation and skip voting because of the long weekend. He continued, “If that occurred, the voting percentage would drop significantly.”
Additionally, according to Mohan Lal Badoli, on October 2, on “Asoj Amavasya,” a number of Bishnoi people from Haryana will travel to Nokha tehsil in Bikaner, Rajasthan to participate in an annual fair held on the occasion.
He added that this could also have an impact on the voting percentage.
According to Mohan Lal Badoli, the EC has been working nonstop to guarantee that as many people as possible use their right to vote in order to support democracy.
Consequently, it would be reasonable to move the Haryana Assembly election’s voting date. He said that when choosing a new date for the election, care should be taken to ensure that there isn’t a holiday the day before or the day after.
He wrote, “We think that more and more voters will be able to participate in the election if the EC does this.”
In his letter, Mohan Lal Badoli also stated that the EC had previously altered the polling date. For instance, because of Sant Ravidas Jayanti on February 16, the Punjab Assembly elections originally scheduled for February 14, 2022, were rescheduled until February 20, 2022.
ATTACK BY OPPOSITION
Congressman Bhupinder Singh Hooda, however, asserted that the BJP’s stance indicates that it has already accepted defeat.
The Election Commission released the poll date more than a week ago. Leader of the Opposition and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Hooda stated that the BJP wants the elections postponed because it has admitted defeat.
Elections ought to be conducted on the day that the EC has designated. He stated that the people of Haryana do not want the BJP government to rule even for a single day.
Referring to Mohan Lal Badoli’s letter, Deepender Hooda, the MP from Rohtak and son of Bhupinder Hooda, remarked, “It shows how scared the BJP is of the elections”.
The BJP is coming up with such immature excuses because it fears defeat. There are no problems, projects, or accomplishments to present to the public, and there are no candidates to hand out tickets. According to Deepender Hooda, the BJP is planning to postpone the elections by using holidays as an excuse, as he stated on X.
The people who vote in Haryana know. Instead of taking a vacation, they would come out in force in the polls to overthrow the BJP government, he continued saying.
The ruling BJP, which could sense it would lose the election, began searching for excuses even before the polls, according to the AAP’s Haryana unit.
The AAP stated in a post on X that the BJP would not have been requesting a postponement of the elections if it had worked in the state. It stated that the BJP will definitely lose this time.
On August 16, the Election Commission (EC) decided that the Haryana assembly votes would take place in a single phase on October 1 and that the results would be released on October 4.
While the Congress seeks to unseat the ruling party, the BJP is aiming for a third consecutive term in office.
November 3 is the last day of the current Haryana Vidhan Sabha’s term.