Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Ready for poll battle” (January 5). After a short interregnum, the country is back to the election mode. It is customary to use the term ‘referendum’ whenever simultaneous polls are being conducted to State legislatures — though the implications of their outcome have little more than a moral impact on the Government at the Centre.
Nevertheless, a victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and a repeat performance in Punjab and Goa, will ensure that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have smooth sailing for the rest of the year. Either due to lack of foresight or because of clever political calculations, the Modi Government has put the Election Commission in an inconvenient situation, where it has been called upon to intervene and decide — for the first time — whether it can, and should, postpone a Budget.