Long list of missing minority voters worrying EC officials GUJARAT POLLS: BJP reminds EC of its main job Express News Service New Delhi, August 11 The Election Commission is expected to take a final decision on conducting polls in Gujarat by Wednesday. Though the EC has not revealed its mind, the BJP seems quite rattled by the way Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh made news in Gujarat. Senior party leaders were today fielded to virtually tell the EC that its job was to conduct elections, and only that.
While Lyngdoh, who returned with his team to New Delhi today after a three-day tour of Ahmedabad and Vadodara, said a decision would come in a few days, it is learnt that the conclusions of the nine-member EC team that visited the state earlier may be reinforced in the second tour. One of the facts the team found, and which may influence the final decision, is the long list of voters from the minority community who are missing, especially in the two cities worst hit by the riots. Election Commissioners T.S. Krishnamurthy and B.B Tandon, along with advisor K.J. Rao, had meticulously gone through the voters� lists for assembly and parliamentary constituencies of the cities and tallied them with the names of people supposed to be in the relief camps. ��The team was given electoral rolls by the local administration and also had its own list. When they went to relief camps and communally sensitive areas, they could not find the voters,�� a source in the Commission said. ��These voters were not in the relief camps, they were not back in their houses. They were not on the list of those killed in the riots. The administration had no clue where they could be. �Voters cannot be disenfranchised so easily.�� The second important issue the Commission would discuss would be the law and order situation in the state. The BJP today gave enough signs that it was disturbed by Lyngdoh�s approach. Party President M Venkaiah Naidu said at a Press conference in Bangalore that ��there is no way other than holding the election.�� Criticising the Opposition parties for making attempts to get elections postponed on the ground that thousands of people were still in relief camps, he asked why these parties were not talking about the lakhs of people who were in the camps in Jammu and Kashmir. ��When elections can be held in Jammu and Kashmir, what prevented these from being held in Gujarat?,�� he asked, accusing the Opposition parties of maintaining ��double standards��. But the more telling comment came from party spokesman and general secretary in charge of the state Arun Jaitley. Objecting to Lyngdoh�s focus on relief and rehabilitation measures in Gujarat, he said there were several relief commissioners to do that job and that the EC should concentrate on elections. Claiming that 98% of the state was normal, Jaitley said , ��The relief commissioners must do their job and the Election Commission its own. The EC should bear in mind the constitutional requirement of Article 174 which mandates that the next sitting of the state assembly has to be called in early October.�� ��The job of the EC is to conduct elections,�� he added. ��I hope they are able to announce the dates at the earliest.�� =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=- To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet ================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
