Himachal BJP has hailed the announcement of the three-phase Panchayat polls in the state but objected to exclusion of Kangra district from the poll schedule.
Reacting to the announcement of poll schedule by State Election Commissioner, Himachal BJP General Secretary, Randhir Sharma and convenor of election cell of the party H N Kashyap in a joint statement said, "we welcome the announcement and hope that the polls would be free and fair but exclusion of the biggest Kangra district was against the established conventions and defies all logic."
The state election commissioner's plea that ballot boxes were not available for holding simultaneous polls in the entire state was not tenable as the same could be borrowed from neighbouring states and further, Himachal was not a big state like Bihar to hold the polls in three of four phases, they said.
"Holding the elections separately under political pressure was wrong as it changes the political scenario and it was for the first time that the elections in all the non-tribal areas are not being held simultaneously," they added.
