Surprising and incomprehensible: Cong slams SEC's decision to postpone some local body polls

Mumbai, Dec 1 (PTI) The Congress said on Monday that the Maharashtra State Election Commission’s decision to postpone the December 2 polling in some municipal councils and wards showed "chaotic functioning" and a failure to follow its own rules.

While the SEC has not provided a detailed list of the local bodies where polls won't be held on Tuesday, Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal claimed that 20 municipal councils and a few wards will be affected by the poll body's decision.

He said the rescheduled voting will now be held on December 20.

The SEC had last month announced that elections in 246 municipal councils and 42 municipal panchayats would be held on December 2, with votes to be counted on December 3.

Sapkal demanded that the counting of votes be deferred and held after December 20.

"The SEC on Sunday night announced that elections in 20 councils and a few wards would be deferred in view of a court order on reservation. This is surprising and incomprehensible", Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal told reporters.

Why the SEC acted eight days after the (Supreme) Court pronounced its verdict on November 22. Was the Commission asleep for eight days until November 30? he asked.

In a recent order, the Supreme Court directed the Maharashtra government and the state election commission to conduct local body elections at the earliest, making it clear that the poll results of bodies where the 50 per cent ceiling on quota has been breached will depend on its verdict.

Sapkal alleged that elections to local bodies were scheduled to be held after nearly ten years, yet confusion prevailed over the electoral process.

"First, the nomination process was made cumbersome. Voter lists were riddled with massive errors, including duplicate and triplicate entries. After elections were announced, the court's reservation-related directives pushed several nagar panchayats into uncertainty. Now, the commission has postponed elections and issued a fresh schedule," the Congress leader said.

Sapkal alleged that the SEC had been unable to conduct elections in a free and transparent manner.

He reiterated Congress's allegations that the filing of an FIR against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case was a "political vendetta".

"Modi and Shah are misusing state power to silence the opposition. Multiple inquiries have produced nothing, yet cases are being filed merely to harass and defame the Gandhi family," Saokal alleged.

He said the leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, was being targeted because he was "working to defend democracy and the Constitution".

"Why didn't the Central government initiate criminal proceedings against Union Minister Murlidhar Mohol or Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's son Parth Pawar in the alleged multi-crore Pune land scam?" he asked. PTI MR NSK