BHUBANESWAR : A day after notifying by-elections to 1,143 vacant posts of zilla parishad members, panchayat samiti members, sarpanches and ward members of rural bodies in various districts, the State Election Commission on Wednesday deferred the polls attributing it to the possibility of early onset of monsoon in Odisha.
Issuing a notification in this regard, the SEC informed that by-elections to these panchayat posts will be held after the monsoon season. The move was taken after district officials, public and the aspirants expressed concern that the poll process may get disrupted due to the possibility of early onset of monsoon in the state. Voting during monsoon is also likely to cause inconvenience to the voters, the SEC added.
The Commission informed that it had sought a report from the IMD regional office in Bhubaneswar, in this regard. The weather forecaster in its report stated that the conditions will become favourable for onset of monsoon over Kerala in the next three to four days. It may also spread to some more parts of south and central Bay of Bengal, north Bay Of Bengal and some parts of northeastern states during the same period, it added.
Criticising the decision, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said, “As the BJP government has failed to deliver during the last one year, the by-elections have been deferred by the SEC because of pressure from the ruling party. Early onset of monsoon cannot be a reason for deferring elections.”
As per the notification issued on Tuesday, the voting was scheduled on June 23. By-elections would have been held for five posts of ZP members, 40 posts of panchayat samiti members, 43 posts of sarpanches and 1,043 ward members in several districts.