A long weekend can be the ideal time for a family trip or at least leaving for a quick getaway. For residents of Haryana, scenic Himachal Pradesh is just a short drive away. But this precisely is the worry of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which is apprehensive of a substantial dip in voting percentage, as October 1, when Haryana will have assembly polls, falls between a long holiday in the state.
September 28 and 29 fall in a weekend and the date of polling on October 1 is followed by Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday the very next day. What’s more, even October 3 is observed as a holiday in the state because of Agrasen Jayanti.
The BJP, which has the odds stacked against it with ten years of anti-incumbency sentiments, fears a substantial drop in voting percentage may dent its electoral prospects.
So Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli has written a letter to the Election Commission of India, citing nine reasons why the poll date in the state should be changed. Not just government but even private employees will be keen to go on a long holiday by taking a day off on September 30, the only working day in the long weekend, he has pointed out. “There’s a very high possibility of many families of Haryana to go on a holiday outside the state. It will definitely bring down the poll percentage substantially,” he has written.
The BJP is also wary of hyper-local events like mela in neighbouring Rajasthan’s Bikaner on the occasion of the new moon of Asoj which attracts a large section of the Vishnoi community of Haryana. Badoli has cited this too while arguing that many from the community “will definitely leave on October 1” to take part in the fair the next day. “So it would be prudent to change the Haryana poll dates and keep it for a slightly later date,” he argues.
The BJP cites past precedents where the EC changed poll dates like for neighbouring Punjab’s assembly elections, which were altered due to Ravidas Jayanti.
The party has recently made a volley of policy and freebie announcements targeting contractual workers which it is confident of reaping electoral benefits from. But if they don’t vote, all these efforts would go down the drain, fears the BJP.
Haryana BJP Seeks Deferment; Opposition Hits Back
After the Haryana unit of the ruling BJP wrote to the Election Commission requesting a brief postponement of the Assembly poll slated for October 1, the Opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) slammed the saffron camp claiming that the ruling party was panicking as it could sense defeat.
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.
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 added.
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