A day after Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had written to the Election Commission of India urging it to postpone the state assembly elections by six days in view of the Guru Ravidas Jayanti, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) state unit and Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) on Sunday also backed the same demand.
Punjab BJP’s general secretary Subhash Sharma unit, in a letter to the poll panel, wrote that the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas falls on February 16, and millions of his followers, including those from the Scheduled Caste community, will visit Varanasi on the occasion. “So, it would not be possible for them to participate in the voting process,” Sharma stated.
The letter further added, “It is, therefore, requested to your good self that the date of voting may be postponed so that these voters of Punjab could participate in the election process.”
Voting for Punjab’s 117 assembly seats will be held on February 14 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10. The Gurupurb of Guru Ravidas falls on February 16, 2022.
Notably, the state of Punjab has a substantial population of followers of Guru Ravidas, including the SC community, which is about 32 percent of the state’s total population.
The demand was supported by former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress. PLC’s general secretary Kamal Saini, in a letter to the ECI, also highlighted the same reasons pointing that many voters may be denied the chance to exercise the franchise as they will be away to Varanasi for the annual pilgrimage.
Saini observed that it should not be difficult for the Election Commission to reschedule the dates for Punjab, as everything else will remain the same. “This is the demand from almost all the political parties in Punjab and the Election Commission should not have any problem in doing that,” he added.
A day before on Saturday, the Chief Minister Channi had written to the Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, requesting to extend the voting date in such a way that they are able to visit Varanasi from February 10 to February 16 and also participate in the assembly elections.
The demand, to reschedule polls from February 14 to February 20, was first raised by the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Punjab unit president Jasvir Singh Garhi.