Punjab Assembly Elections 2022 Postponed By 6 Days

Chandigarh: The election commission of India has decided to postpone the upcoming Punjab Assembly polls by six days in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti. The election will now be held on 20 February instead of 14 February.

Political leaders belonging to different political parties had urged the Election Commission to postpone the date of the elections and the poll body held a meeting to discuss this issue.

The polling body decided to defer the polls after taking in inputs from the state government as well as the chief electoral officer of Punjab.

"Commission has received several representations from state government, political parties and other organizations drawing attention regarding movement of a large number of devotees from Punjab to Varanasi for participation in Sri Guru Ravidas Ji Jayanti celebrations, which is observed on 16th February 2022. They have also brought to the notice that a large number of devotees start moving for Varanasi around a week before the day of celebration and keeping the poll day on 14th February 2022 will deprive large number of electors from voting. In view of this, they have requested to shift the poll date a few days after 16th February 2022," the election commission said in a statement.

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi wrote a letter to the EC where he urged the polling body to deter the assembly elections by six days in the wake of the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas.

CM Channi addressed his letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, where he said that some representatives of the Scheduled Castes community, which contributes around 32 percent of the state's population, informed him about this clash of dates. It is to be noted that the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas falls on February 16.

His letter dated on January 13 stated that a large number of SC devotees (about 20 lakh) from the state are most likely to visit Banaras in Uttar Pradesh from February 10 to 16 on this occasion. 

It would result in a lot of people missing out on their votes for the state assembly in such a situation.

He also added that the people from the community urged him to extend the voting day in such a way that they are able to visit Banaras from February 10 to 16 and also take part in the voting process.

The Punjab CM said that it would be fair and appropriate that the voting for Punjab assembly elections 2022, be postponed for at least six days. It will enable about 20 lakh voters to utilize their right to vote in the upcoming elections.

The Punjab assembly elections will be held in a single phase on 20 February and the results will be declared on 10 March.

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