Worried over Patidar agitation, Gujarat EC puts off local body polls

Ahmedabad: Gujarat State Election Commission has announced postponement of polls to various local bodies in the state, citing law and order situation as a reason.
The announcement was made thorough a notification by the commission.Though the notification does not mention the exact reasons affecting the law and order situation, it is believed that the commission is concerned about the current scene prevailing in the state due to the Patel quota agitation.

As per the notification issued by the secretary in the state Election Commission Mahesh Joshi, the decision to hold the election to the lo cal bodies, including municipalities and district panchayats, will be taken within three months time after examining the situation.

The notification stated that elections to six municipal corporations, 56 municipalities, 230 taluka panchayats and 31 district panchayats were expected to be held between October and November this year as the term of these bodies is expiring in the period.

“Keeping in mind the necessity to hold elections in free, fair and peaceful environment, the commission has evaluated the present law and order situation across the state. After such evaluation, we have decided not to hold elections at present,“ the release stated.

The announcement came hours after Gujarat governor O P Kohli issued an ordinance to bring uniformity in the law about the situations where local body elections are deferred.

Through the ordinance, the Gujarat government al so empowered itself to take a decision to delay the polls if there is an apprehension that the voters would not be able to use the franchise freely and fairly.

The Supreme Court has recently stayed the elections to municipalities and mu nicipal corporations, fol lowing a plea by advocate Anirudh Sharma.

Since the ban was not ap plicable on Panchayati Ra institutions, Gujarat Con gress unit had recently me the state election commis sioner Varesh Sinha and requested him to expedite the process to hold elect ions in district panchayats and taluka panchayats across the state.