On Saturday, the Election Commission deferred the Haryana assembly election polling date to October 5.
ECI’s decision comes after Haryana BJP’s written request to the Election Commission, seeking a postponement of the Assembly polls on October 1 to another date, citing holidays before and after October 1. The BJP’s request drew a dig from the Congress, with former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda asserting that the saffron party accepted defeat.
State Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal confirmed that the Election Commission received a copy of Badoli’s letter on Friday over email. “We have received the communication from state BJP and forwarded it to the Election Commission,” he informed the media.
Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli, in his letter to the Election Commission, said people tend to go on vacation in the week before and after October 1 and could impact the voter percentage. He asked the poll body to fix a new date.
Varinder Garg, a member of the BJP’s state election management committee, said, “We have reasoned that the Assembly election date of October 1 is preceded by a holiday on weekend and followed by some holidays which may hit the voting percentage as people tend to go on vacation on long weekends which are followed by holidays.”
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