EC reschedules Punjab polls, to be held on 20 February
Premium- Earlier, it was to take place on February 14
The Election Commission (EC) on Monday rescheduled the date of polling in Punjab to February 20. Earlier, it was to take place on February 14.
The commission met today morning to discuss demands by various political parties to defer the February 14 assembly polls in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had urged the EC to defer the polls by six days in view of the Jayanti, which is on February 16.
Other political parties like BJP, BSP and Punjab Lok Congress of Amarinder Singh too made similar requests to postpone the single-phase poll.
Lakhs of devotees visit Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to celebrate the day and parties feel that they would not be able to cast their votes due to this.
In a letter to the CEC, Punjab BJP general secretary Subhash Sharma said, "The state has substantial population of followers of Guru Ravidas ji, including the Scheduled Caste (SC) community which is about 32 per cent of the population of Punjab."
"On this pious occasion, millions of the devotees would visit Banaras in Uttar Pradesh to celebrate the gurparb. So it would not be possible for them to participate in the voting process. It is therefore requested to your goodself that the date of voting may be postponed so that these voters of Punjab could participate in the election process," he said.
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