The Election Commission on Saturday announced the change in the date of Haryana elections. Now voting for 90 assembly seats of the state will be held on October 5 instead of October 1. The commission said that this decision has been taken keeping in mind the centuries-old festival of the Bishnoi community. Along with this, the commission also changed the counting date of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana assembly elections. Now the counting of votes will be done on October 8 instead of October 4 in both the states. Both BJP and INLD were also demanding to change the date.
According to the Election Commission, it decided to change the date of Haryana elections to respect the voting rights and traditions of the Bishnoi community. The Bishnoi community has been celebrating a 300-400 year old tradition in the memory of their guru Jambheshwar. And this year Asoj Amavasya is falling on October 2. In view of this, the Election Commission had received a memorandum from the National President of All India Bishnoi Mahasabha, Bikaner, Rajasthan to reschedule the date of Haryana Assembly elections.
In the memorandum, he had said that families from Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana visit their native village Mukam in Rajasthan on the ‘Amavas’ of the month of ‘Asoj’ for the annual festival in Bikaner in memory of Guru Jambheshwar. This year the festival is on October 2 and thousands of Bishnoi families living in Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar will travel to Rajasthan on this day, due to which they will not be able to exercise their voting rights.
BJP-INLD had given the long weekend argument
BJP and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) had also demanded the Election Commission to change the date. Both the parties had requested the Commission in writing that the date of election (1 October) should be extended as this date is clashing with weekends, public holidays and religious festivals. In such a situation, people can take advantage of the holidays and go out of their city, which can reduce the percentage of voting.
Haryana BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli had written a letter to the Election Commission saying, “There are many holidays before and after 1 October. In his letter, he has mentioned that 28th is Saturday and 29th is Sunday, 30th is a working day in between i.e. Monday and voting will be held on 1st October, Tuesday. While 2nd October is a holiday on account of Gandhi Jayanti, 3rd October is a holiday on account of Agrasen Jayanti. In such a situation, as it is a 6 day long weekend, people can go on holidays. After the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission had said that we have learnt a lesson from these elections that elections should not be conducted in extreme heat and voting should not be conducted on weekends.”
What is Asoj Amavasya?
Asoj Amavasya is a major festival of the Bishnoi community. This festival is celebrated for hundreds of years in the memory of Guru Jambheshwar, the founder of the Bishnoi community. Guru Jambheshwar took samadhi in a village called Mukam in Bikaner, Rajasthan. This place is now called Mukti Dham. There is a belief in the Bishnoi community that those who serve here selflessly attain salvation. Two major fairs are organized every year at the Mukam temple. The first is on Falgun Amavasya and the second on Asoj Amavasya. Every year on the occasion of Asoj Amavasya, people from far-flung areas of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan come here and pay obeisance at Mukti Dham.
A look at the 2019 assembly elections
Last time, in the 2019 assembly elections, votes were cast in a single phase. Then votes were cast for all the seats of Haryana Assembly on 21 October 2019. The election results were announced on 24 October. In the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, 68.20 percent of the voters exercised their franchise.
In the Haryana Assembly elections 2019, BJP emerged as the largest party by winning 40 seats with 36.7 percent vote share. At that time, Congress got 28.2 percent votes and the party stood second with 31 seats. Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) won 10 seats with 14.9 percent vote share, Haryana Lokhit Party won one seat with less than one percent vote share.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)