■ 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.