No change in Maharashtra schedule: EC

The Election Commission yesterday rejected opposition Shiv Sena-BJP combine's demand for changing the polling date for Assembly elections in Maharashtra from October 13.

"There were representations either to advance on postpone the polling dates. However, there was no unanimity among the political parties over it so they have decided to maintain October 13 as polling date," Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishna Murthy told reporters here.

Earlier, a delegation of the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met the the Chief Election Commissioner and pleaded for shifting the date saying October 13, falling during "pitri paksh", was an inauspicious date.

The Election Commission team comprising BB Tandon and N Gopalaswami met representatives of political parties, senior police and administrative officials. The polling time will be 7:30 am to 5:30 pm, Krishna Murthy said.

The time has been changed to enable polling personnel reach on time at their respective polling stations and the festive nature of the period.

When Krishna Murthy's attention was drawn to Sena chief Bal Thackeray's comment that the EC should distinguish between religion and politics, the CEC said: "We are not providing dictionary service. There is law and ample judgement of the court to clear the distinction."

The CEC said the Election Commission had asked the DF government to defer tenders for transportation of food grains and computerisation of ration cards.

Another interesting aspect this time is that the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance is fighting the polls together unlike the last time when Sharad Pawar had parted ways with the Congress on the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin.

The Assembly by-election being held in 14 states are Assam, Goa and Manipur (one each), Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi (two each), Nagaland and West Bengal (three each), gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir (four each) and Uttar Pradesh (12).