'One Of The Reasons...': EC On Allegations Of Delaying Gujarat Poll Dates Due To PM's Morbi Visit

Gujarat Election 2022: The Assembly election in Gujarat will be held in two phases -- December 1 and December 5 -- the Election Commission announced.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi at the bridge collapse site ( Image Source :PTI )

The Election Commission on Thursday said there were "multiple factors" for the delay in announcing the poll schedule for Gujarat election. 

Responding to allegations that the Election Commission delayed announcing poll dates due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the bridge collapse site in Morbi, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, "Recently a very tragic incident occurred in Gujarat -- one of the reasons why we delayed. Also, there was state mourning in the state on November 2."

The British-era bridge, built on the river Machchhu, had collapsed on Sunday evening, killing 135 people, including women and children. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Morbi bridge collapse site and also met the survivors at the hospital.

The Assembly election in Gujarat will be held in two phases -- December 1 and December 5 -- the Election Commission announced. The results for the election will be declared, along with that of the Himachal Pradesh polls, on December 8.

The Election Commission had come under fire from the Opposition for not announcing Gujarat poll dates last month along with that of Himachal Pradesh. 

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said Gujarat poll dates were not announced along with Himachal because PM Modi "has to inaugurate many more such bridges like the one that collapsed in Morbi".

Usually, elections in the two states have always been held simultaneously and results announced on the same date. The term of the Gujarat assembly ends on February 18 while that of Himachal Pradesh ends on January 8.

While announcing the poll dates for Himachal on October 20, CEC Rajiv Kumar said no rules were violated and the EC went by the convention set in 2017 when elections to both states were announced separately.

Kumar cited the weather in Himachal Pradesh as one of the reasons why elections in the states were announced first.

"There is a gap of 40 days between the end of the assemblies of the two states. According to the rules, it should be at least 30 days so that one result doesn't impact the other," the Chief Election Commissioner had said.

"There are a number of factors, like weather. We want to hold the Himachal elections before the onset of snow," he further said.