Chandigarh, Sep 5 (Inditop.com) The Election Commission of India (ECI) Saturday indicated that it could consider advancing the counting of votes in assembly elections to be held in Maharashtra and Haryana next month.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla said here that the long gap between the polling (Oct 13) and the counting (Oct 22) for assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh was kept in view of the Diwali festival season next month and also due to the tough terrain in Arunachal Pradesh.
“We will consider this (advancing the counting) for Maharashtra and Haryana,” Chawla told mediapersons here.
“We had kept the (long) gap keeping in view holidays due to the Diwali festival season and also because of Arunachal Pradesh. But we can look into this. We have no problem in getting counting done earlier in Maharashtra and Haryana,” he said.
He said that in case of Arunachal, the EC had to keep in mind the difficult terrain and the time taken by polling parties to reach back after getting the election conducted. “We also have to keep in mind the days required to get re-poll conducted in certain areas,” he added.
The Hindu festival of Diwali falls Oct 16-17.
The EC Saturday met representatives of various political parties from Haryana ahead of the assembly elections. Chawla said a number of complaints were received from opposition parties regarding the Haryana government’s expenditure allegedly to help the ruling party.
“We have asked them to furnish the proof of such instances after the model code of conduct came into force. The commission is satisfied with the arrangements for the assembly elections,” Chawla said.
The 90-member assembly was dissolved last month after the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government recommended the same seven months before the end of the term of the outgoing assembly.
The ruling Congress is upbeat about doing well in the elections. The party had won nine out of the state’s 10 Lok Sabha seats in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.
