New Delhi, May 31
The Election Commission today stated that elections to the Bihar Assembly would be held in October- November only and ruled out early polls as sought by the NDA.
“The Commission will frame a suitable time schedule for the polls in due course taking into account all relevant factors, including religious festivals and the ground realities such as floods….and would endeavour to complete the process by 22
November,” the poll panel said.
The three-member commission headed by the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr B.B. Tandon, came to this conclusion after studying the report of the two-member team comprising Deputy E.C. Anand Kumar and Legal Adviser S.K. Mehendiratta that visited the state to look into the ground realities and ascertain the views of political parties.
“Having carefully considered the pros and cons and the recommendations of the two-member team, the full Commission is of the unanimous view that holding of free and fair poll during the period July, August and September is ruled out,” the poll panel said.
The EC said the poll process would be completed by
November 22.
As per the Supreme Court judgement elections have to be held at the earliest and within six months of the date of premature dissolution of the Assembly.
The Commission said some of the political parties requested for an early by-election before the onset of the monsoon and also the expiry of President’s rule on September 6.
On the other hand, some other political parties were of the view that the elections should be held only after the rainy reason was over and the floods, which were an annual feature in the state, recede, the EC said.
These parties also requested the Commission to keep in view the religious festivals like Durga Puja, Dasehra, Deepawali, Eid and Chhat Puja falling in October-November while finalising the poll schedule.
The Commission has duly taken note of the requests and views of the political parties, the EC said adding in order to make an assessment of the preparedness of the state machinery to conduct the polls, ground realities with regard to the rains and floods, the two-member team was sent to the state.
The team held extensive meetings with the recognised political parties, senior officers and district authorities of all the 38 districts in the state.
The EC had also received “valuable inputs’’ from India Meteorological Department about the onset and withdrawal of monsoon in Bihar during the last 10 years and from the Central Water Commission about the impact of floods.
The poll panel said in Bihar, the monsoon is expected to set in by the middle of June this year — only a fortnight from today — as per the forecast and the previous records furnished by the IMD.
The Commission also considered the impact of floods caused not only by heavy rains in the state but also by the heavy inflow of water from the
catchment areas in Nepal.It also took into consideration all other relevant aspects like the need to update the electoral rolls which were frozen after the last date of making nominations for the last Assembly election in February, the need for servicing the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the need to acquaint the candidates and their agents in the proper functioning of those machines as some of the political parties and the candidates had complained in the past about the inadequacy of their knowledge about the functioning of EVMs.
The mobilisation of the central para-military forces in adequate numbers and other aspects were also considered, it added.
President’s rule was imposed in Bihar on March 7 as the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre had felt that no party was in a position to form a stable government in the wake of the February election which had produced a fractured mandate.
Subsequently, the state Assembly was dissolved on May 23 as the Centre, on the basis of a report from Governor Buta Singh, felt that horse trading of the worst kind was going on in the state. The move had evoked the criticism of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
