The Election Commission on Monday announced it would hold the single-phase assembly polls in Punjab on February 20 instead of February 14 in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti.
Several political parties had approached the EC to postpone the polls in the state in view of Ravidas Jayanti on February 16.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, BJP and its allies, and the BSP had urged the poll panel to postpone the date of voting as lakhs of followers of Guru Ravidas travel to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to celebrate the day.
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In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner on Sunday seeking postponement of the election, 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 good self that the date of voting may be postponed so that these voters of Punjab could participate in the election process,” he wrote.
On January 13, Channi had urged the Election Commission to postpone the polling date by six days “for enabling around 20 lakh SC devotees to utilise their right to vote for the state legislative assembly.”
In a statement, the Commission said polls would now be held on February 20. It coincides with the third phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh.
The parties had said that several followers of Guru Ravidas would not be able to exercise their franchise on February 14 as they would be travelling.
