By IANS,
Mumbai: A delegation of Maharashtra opposition parties Wednesday called on state election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan, demanding simultaneous counting of votes for the Feb 7 Zilla Parishad and Feb 16 municipal corporation elections.
The delegation included the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Vinod Tawde and senior Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai.
“We informed the election commissioner that the declaration of the Zilla Parishad results could influence the voting in the municipal corporation elections, scheduled barely nine days later,” Tawde said.
More so, since the model code of conduct would already be in place, declaration of the Zilla Parishad poll results before municipal corporation polls would be tantamount to violation of the code by the state election commission itself, Tawde claimed.
Quoting Satyanarayan, he said she gave them a sympathetic hearing and assured there would not be any violation of the model code of conduct.
Satyanarayan also assured them that she would look into the opposition demand and announce the decision accordingly.
On Tuesday, the election commission declared the election dates – Feb 7 for 27 Zilla Parishad and Feb 16 for 10 major municipal corporations – and announced that the counting of votes would be held Feb 8 and Feb 16-17, respectively.
However, all opposition parties, including Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, immediately demanded the counting of votes for both the elections should be held simultaneously Feb 17.
Shiv Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe also clamoured for simultaneous counting as it would prevent voters in the municipal corporations from getting “influenced” by the outcome in the Zilla Parishad elections.
“More so, since in some districts like Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Solapur and others, both the Zilla Parishad and civic bodies will be held,” Gorhe pointed out.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena vice president V. Saraswat also said that since the model code has already been imposed from Wednesday, it would make sense to postpone the counting in Zila Parishad elections till the civic bodies’ elections are completed.
“Later, simultaneous counting can be taken up and it would present a free and fair picture of the outcome,” Saraswat said.