Gandhinagar

Reacting to today’s verdict by Gujarat High Court regarding local body polls and related ordinance, Gujarat government today said holding elections during Diwali will be a problem.

The situation has emerged following today’s verdict that polling will have to be held during Diwali festival when police will be busy in festival related bandobast, teachers will be unavailable due to Diwali vacation, and therefore all govt machinery to hold elections will be unavailable which will create a major problem, said state government spokesperson and senior minister Shri Nitin Patel.

He said, Congress had filed writ petition in Supreme Court seeking one candidate in one ward and also against compulsory voting. Due to this, the stay is in effect against holding Municipal Corporation elections. In connection with this and also in connection with today’s verdict from the High Court, the government will take advise of lawyers and do suitable procedures. The state election commission will do its procedure separately.

On the ordinance junked by the High Court today, Shri Patel said the ordinance was for permanent reasons. Earlier there was provision to postpone the local body polls only due to communal riots, so we made a provision that Govt would have right to postpone the polls due to any kind of disturbance or riots.

– DeshGujarat