BJP seeks date change for Haryana polls; Congress, AAP say party sensing defeat

The Haryana unit of the ruling BJP has written to the Election Commission requesting a brief postponement of the Assembly poll slated for 1 October, citing holidays before and after the election date that could lead to a lower voter turnout.

While the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) slammed the BJP, claiming that the ruling party was panicking as it could sense defeat, Abhay Chautala's INLD too sought the deferment of polls.

A Haryana BJP leader on Saturday said the letter was sent by the party's state unit chief Mohan Lal Badoli to the poll panel.

Haryana's chief electoral officer Pankaj Agarwal confirmed that the commission received a copy of the communication on Friday over email.

"We have received the communication from state BJP and forwarded it to the Election Commission," Agarwal told PTI.

Varinder Garg, a member of the BJP's state election management committee, said, "We have reasoned that the Assembly election date of 1 October (Tuesday) is preceded by a weekend and followed by more holidays which might hit the voting percentage as people tend to go on vacation on long weekends."

Garg said 28-29 September are Saturday and Sunday while 1 October is a poll holiday. It is followed by more holidays as Gandhi Jayanti falls on 2 October and Maharaja Agrasen Jayanti on 3 October, he said.

"We have written to the Election Commission in this regard. For a better turnout, any new date once the string of holidays is over should be fine," Garg told PTI over the phone.

By taking a day's leave on 30 September, people will have six holidays. Due to this long weekend, there is a strong possibility that several families might go on a vacation and give voting a miss, Badoli said in his letter to the EC.

If it happens, the voting percentage would reduce drastically, he added.

Badoli also said that on 'Asoj Amavasya' on 2 October, several members of the Bishnoi community of Haryana will leave for Nokha tehsil of Bikaner in Rajasthan to participate in an annual fair held on the occasion.

This too can affect the voting percentage, he further said.

Badoli wrote that it has been the continuous effort of the EC to ensure that the maximum number of people exercise their franchise to strengthen democracy.

Therefore, it would be appropriate that the date fixed for voting for the Haryana Assembly election be changed. While determining a fresh date for the election, it should be made certain that there is no holiday the previous or the following day, he wrote.

We believe that if the EC does this, more and more voters will be able to participate in the election, he wrote.

Badoli, in his letter, also mentioned that in the past the date of polling has been changed by the EC. For example, the date declared for voting in Punjab Assembly elections -- 14 February 2022 -- was changed to 20 February 2022, due to Sant Ravidas Jayanti on 16 February.

In 2022, the then Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, the BJP and its allies, and the BSP had urged the poll panel to postpone the date of voting as lakhs of followers of Guru Ravidas travel to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to celebrate the day.

However, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the BJP's stand shows that it has already accepted defeat.

It has been more than a week since the Election Commission announced the poll date. The BJP wants the polls to be deferred as it has accepted defeat, Bhupinder Hooda, who is Leader of the Opposition and former chief minister of Haryana, said.

Polls should be held according to the date fixed by the EC... People of Haryana don't want to see the BJP government in power even for a day, he said.

Bhupinder Hooda's son and Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda while referring to Badoli's letter, said, "It shows how scared the BJP is of the elections".

The BJP is staring at defeat and is therefore coming up with such childish arguments. It has no issues, work or achievements to show to the people and no candidates to distribute the tickets. This is why the BJP is conspiring to postpone the elections by giving an excuse for holidays, Deepender Hooda said in Hindi on X.

The voters of Haryana are aware. They will not go anywhere for a holiday, but will come to the polling booth in large numbers to vote out the BJP government, he added.

The AAP's Haryana unit said even before the elections took place, the ruling BJP had started looking for excuses as it could sense its impending defeat in the election.

In a post on X, the AAP said if the BJP had done work in the state, it would not have been seeking postponement of polls. This time the BJP's defeat is certain, it said.

Meanwhile, Indian National Lok Dal's (INLD) Chautala said the polling date should be postponed by one or two weeks.

Since people usually go on holidays on long weekends, it will adversely affect the voting percentage which is likely to decrease by 15 to 20 per cent, Chautala said.

The EC on 16 August announced that assembly polls in Haryana would be held in a single phase on 1 October and the results would be declared on 4 October.

The BJP is eyeing a third consecutive term while the Congress is looking to wrest power from the ruling outfit.

The tenure of the current Haryana Vidhan Sabha ends on 3 November.