NEW DELHI :
■ Counting for J&K, Haryana polls on Oct 8
THE Election Commission on Saturday
deferred the Haryana Assembly poll
date to October 5 from October 1, saying the decision was taken keeping in
mind a centuries-old festival of the
Bishnoi community.
The counting of votes for Jammu and
Kashmir and Haryana Assembly polls
will now be held on October 8 instead
of October 4, the poll body said.
It has been a practice of the EC to
hold the counting of votes on the same
day for Assemblies which go to polls
together as the results of one state could
affect trends in others. Before the revision of the date, the Haryana polls were
to be held along with the third and last
phase of the Jammu and Kashmir elections.
The decision to postpone the
Haryana elections has been taken to
honour both the voting rights and traditions of the Bishnoi community which
has upheld a 300-400-year-old practice
in remembrance of their Guru
Jambheshwar, the EC said.
It said it had received a representation from the national president of the
All India Bishnoi Mahasabha, Bikaner,
Rajasthan for rescheduling the Haryana
Assembly elections.
He said generations of families from
Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana visit
their native village Mukam in Rajasthan
on ‘amavas’ in the month of ‘Asoj’ for
the annual festival in Bikaner in the
memory of Guru Jambheshwar, according to the EC. This year, the festival falls
on October 2 and thousands of Bishnoi
families residing in Sirsa, Fatehabad
and Hisar will be travelling to Rajasthan
on the day, denying them their voting
rights. Separately, the ruling BJP and
the opposition INLD in Haryana had
urged the EC to revise the polling
date keeping in mind the long weekend which might result in poor voter
turnout as people tend to go out on
extended weekends.