SEC postpones polls to some Municipal Councils of Vidarbha

 

 

With just 48 hours left for voting and campaigns in full swing, the State Election Commission (SEC) has postponed the polls due to court orders, technical errors and pending legal appeals. In Amravati, the elections in Anjangaon Surji Municipal Council (MC) and the member election for Ward 2(A) of Daryapur MC have been postponed. As per orders, candidates whose nomination papers were rejected in the scrutiny but had filed appeals in court and got decisions by November 22 should have been given three days to withdraw nominations. This would have made the allocation of election symbols on November 26 valid. However, since sufficient time wasn’t given, the symbol allocation process was deemed irregular. The SEC pointed out non-compliance with rules in cases where court decisions on appeals were announced on November 23 or later.

 

 

 

Hence, if the appeal pertained to a presidential seat, the entire municipal election stands postponed. If it was for a member seat, only that ward’s election is postponed. At Anjangaon Surji, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate Akash Sukhdeverao Raut’s nomination for President’s post was rejected due to missing five signatories. The court later directed acceptance of his nomination via appeal. At Daryapur Ward 2(A), Congress candidate Devidas Vitthal Kale’s nomination was rejected as the party issued ‘AB forms’ to two candidates in the ward. The court ordered his nomination be accepted as an independent. In view of this, the revised Schedule for postponed elections (to be officially declared by District Collector and according the process will start on December 4. The last date for withdrawal of nomination will be December 10 (till 3 pm), allocation of election symbols on 11th while voting will take place from 7.30 am to 5.30 pm on December 20 and counting of votes from 10 am on December 21. The election machinery in Daryapur had prepared and sealed EVMs, poll parties were to be dispatched Monday. Now,