When a team of Election Commission of India is about to visit the State on July 21 and make consultations with all the stakeholders in the run-up to Assembly elections in Jharkhand, parties are divided over apt time for the purpose. Though majority of the parties are in the favour of post-festival schedule there are some who think the exercise should be held along with Assembly polls in Haryana and other states.
"We are ready to fight the elections in Jharkhand anytime. Though, the Election Commission should keep in mind the festivals which are mostly concentrated in October. The polls are due somewhere between October and November and it is the discretionary power of the Commission to fix dates for polls. Electoral processes are important but religious sentiments should also be kept in mind before finalising the dates," said leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Arjun Munda. The team which includes Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath among several other senior officials of the Commission will hold consultations with political parties, senior Government officials, districts administration, police officials etc to take stock of the situation. It is expected that the ECI would formulate a timeframe for the polls after the two-day visit.
As per the schedule tenure of the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly is coming to an end onJanuary 3, 2015 and fresh lot of elected representatives should be in place before that in normal circumstances.
As most of the festivals, including Dussehra, Bakrid, Diwali and Chhath are due in October some other major parties from the State are also looking for November bound poll. "We want the elections are held after Chhath. It is the end of all major festivals and it would be convenient for the electorates to participate in the elections," said JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya.
Similar are the views of the Congress, another party in power in Jharkhand in a coalition with JMM and the RJD. "We will surely present our views before the panel and suggest tentative dates. In our views the elections should be held after November when all the festivals likeDussehra, Diwali and Chhath would be over. We will request the Election Commission to hold polls after November," said Pradesh Congress Committee president Sukhdeo Bhagat.
Coalition partners in the Government are worried about anti-incumbency against the parties in power which would escalate due to slow pace of developmental activities firstly during Monsoon and thereafter due to imposition of the model code of conduct. Any additional amount of time would come as bounty for them.
The JVM is in a hurry. "Elections are due in Haryana in October and polls in Jharkhand should be held along with it. Otherwise poll results of the State may have some bearing on the state of mind of the electorates here. National parties, and not regional parties like us, would participate in Haryana. If the Election Commission wishes, polls in the State can be conducted between Dussehra and Diwali. What we are worried about is that national parties could not take any undue advantage of the results coming in any other State," said JVM general secretary Praveen Singh.