While some candidates contesting mayoral polls met State Election Commissioner SD Sharma and demanded counting of votes for the mayoral elections held on April 8, majority of political parties do not want mayoral polls to be countermanded. At a time when every political party presses for a detailed investigation of the cash haul case, they are in favour of counting to be completed so that voters’ rights are respected.
"There should not be any technical basis for countermanding the polls. The election could have been postponed by the administration earlier when the cash was seized a day before the polls. Now, when lakhs of people have voted to choose their representative in the civic body, their sentiments should be honoured," said State BJP president Ravindra Rai.
Rai said that Mayor Rama Khalkho, against whom arrest warrant has been issued, was merely a pawn in the hands of Congress stalwarts. "When the cash was seized Congress MP Subodh Kant Sahay was with Rama Khalkho. The State Government is prejudiced and that's why it is not registering an FIR against Sahay. Even during the Hatia and Mandu by-elections they have used money power. They are the main culprits and they should be booked," said Rai hitting at Sahay and his brother Sunil Sahay. Meanwhile, BJP workers organised a torch rally in the city seeking arrest of Sahay and his aides in the cash haul case and demanded vacation of stay from counting of votes for the mayoral polls.
AJSU Party spokesperson Deosharan Bhagat raised a logical query when asked about his party's stand on the issue. "If a student is caught cheating in exams, is the candidate punished or the whole examination is cancelledIJ In this case a particular candidate has been caught with cash and not the whole election process was erroneous. So there is no question of countermanding of the polls," Bhagat said.
"If the polls are countermanded on the basis that one particular candidate had committed some crime then this can be misused by anyone in future. One candidate, who wants polls to be countermanded, would distribute cash or liquor and would get arrested. It would be very easy for any Tom Dick and Harry to get polls countermanded. We do not want countermanding of the polls. If that happens, people would raise questions on the Election Commission too," he added.
Echoing similar views, former Minister and senior Congress leader of the State RK Kishore said that when all the electoral processes had been completed properly, voters exercised their franchise, there were no untoward incidents then countermanding the polls just because one candidate was alleged to be involved in some malpractices, would be unfair. "As far as my little knowledge goes, there is no basis for
countermanding of the polls," he said.
However, the State Congress has not issued any statement on the issue and senior leaders of the party were 'unreachable' for their
comments.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has also demanded for counting of the votes. Spokesperson of JMM, Supriyo Bhattacharya said, "The party is not in favour of countermanding the polls. The polling percentage is already low and people have exercised their franchise. Their right to vote should be respected and counting should be completed," he said adding that a detailed
investigation on the cash haul case was required.
So far only Babulal Marandi led Jharkhand Vikas Morcha has raised a demand for countermanding of polls. JVM legislature party leader Pradeep Yadav said that his party's stand was clear as it had demanded countermanding of polls and investigation of the cash haul case by a sitting judge as the police might not be able to probe the case independently. He said that the role of senior Congress leaders in the case should also be investigated and they should be punished for the same.
Meanwhile, decision on the fate of the Mayoral election will be taken only after taking legal views from experts. "As it is not a simple case, we are looking into all the aspects very cautiously and then only legal views will be taken by the experts," said State Election Commission Secretary MK Jha.
Counting of votes was stayed by the EC after the money grab case of Sunday where Rs 21.9 lakh were seized from a hotel room booked in the name of a Congress leader. Mayoral candidate Rama Khalkho was holding a meeting with the Congress workers along with the senior Congress leaders like Subodh Kant Sahay the moment the raid was
conducted.