An influential Christian group Friday made an appeal to the Election Commission to "either anticipate or postpone" the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April 18 as the day 'Maundy Thursday' is a holy day which commemorates the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), the apex body of the Catholic Church in the country, made the plea in a letter to the Election Commission (EC).
It informed the EC that "with the important election date clashing with the Religious Services Maundy Thursday, Christians may find it very difficult to fulfil both the calls for worship and for electoral duties specially those called to be poll officers or are placed on other active polling duties."
In his letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, the CBCI's secretary general Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, said"We know April 18, Maundy Thursday, is not a public holiday but most Christians either take leave from work or come back early to participate in the sacred worship."
The letter said "a change in the announced date may cause inconvenience to you, your office and to your collaborators. But our apprehensions are that, not changing the date may create avoidable but much bigger difficulties for all in the conduct of the polls."