EC defers Rajya Sabha elections in Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal: Are Presidential polls the reason?

The Election Commission on Monday announced it was deferring the biennial Rajya Sabha elections that were to be conducted in Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal on June 8. Read to know more.

budget 2017, pm modi, fm arun jaitley, budget forecast, gdp fy18 forecast, economic survey 2017 — Indian security personnel stand guard near sacks containing the papers of the federal budget for the 2014/15 fiscal year, at the parliament in New Delhi July 10, 2014. Rrepresentational image].Reuters File Photo

The Election Commission (EC) on Monday, May 22, announced that it was deferring the biennial Rajya Sabha elections that were to be conducted in Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal on June 8. The EC has already deferred several elections, including that to the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency.

In a concise statement on Monday, the poll panel said it has "decided to withdraw Press Note No ECI/PN/40/2017 dated May 16, 2017."

It added that it would "announce programme for holding biennial election to council of states from Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal in due course."

While no official reason has been given for the postponement of the elections, Twitterati are speculating that it could be due to the upcoming Presidential polls.

Rajya Sabha polls for Gujarat, Goa, Bengal seats postponed over presidential election and EVM tampering challenge for parties
— Kanwal Chadha (@KanwalChadha) May 22, 2017

The Presidential election in India is supposed to be completed before July 25, when the term of current President Pranab Mukherjee ends.

Election to 10 seats postponed

The Rajya Sabha elections were to be held for 10 seats, where the retirees from the Upper House of Parliament are Shantaram Naik from Goa, Ahmed Mohammedbhai Patel, Dilipbhai Shivshankarbhai Pandya and Smriti Zubin Irani from Gujarat, and Derek O'Brien, Debabrata Bandyopadhyay, Pradip Bhattacharya, Sitaram Yechury, Sukhendusekhar Roy and Dola Sen from West Bengal.

The notification for the elections was to have been issued on Monday itself, with May 29 and 30 serving as the dates for last date of submitting nomination papers and scrutiny of the documents, respectively. Polling was to have taken place from 9 am to 4 pm on June 8, with counting beginning immedieately after that.