Acknowledging bottlenecks in holding simultaneous elections in lohardaga, the Election Commission of India on Saturday rescinded its earlier decision of holding by-elections on November 21 and postponed the same to facilitate smooth panchayat election in the district. The ECI, however, has not announced fresh schedules to conduct elections on lohardaga Assembly seat.
“Having considered the matter, the Commission rescinds its announcements of by-election from lohardaga (ST) Assembly Constituency in the legislative Assembly of Jharkhand made… A separate schedule for holding a by-election from 72-lohardaga (ST) Assembly Constituency will be announced at an appropriate time so that the process of by-election is completed before December 22, 2015,” said the Press communiqué issued by the ECI.
The Commission was informed by State Election Commissioner Shiv Basant about the impending elections in the district and the “clash of date” of the election on the Assembly seat with Panchayat polls which is schedule to be held on November 22. The Commission had earlier announced by-election at lohardaga seat on November 21 and the date of counting of votes was November 24.
Notably, two blocks of lohardaga- Peshrar and Kisko-are scheduled to vote for the 3-tier Panchayat in the first phase of the elections schedules to be held on November 22.
“Our first phase election is on November 22 so there was problem with dates and nothing else,” said the State Election Commissioner.
Incidentally, the lohardaga seat felt vacant in June 23 after ex-MlA, Kamal Kishore Bhagat was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment by a local court on the charges of attempt to murder among others. Kishore, who held the seat on AJSU’s ticket, and his colleague Allistair Bodra were found guilty in 21-year-old case of attempt on the life of local doctor which had led to automatic disqualification of the disgraced MlA from the membership of State legislative Assembly.Ranchi