Lucknow, Oct 17 (PTI) The BJP and Rashtriya Lok Dal on Thursday asked the Election Commission to defer the bypoll dates from November 13 to November 20 in view of Kartik Purnima bath and puja.
A BJP delegation led by state general secretary Govind Narain Shukla met Uttar Pradesh additional chief electoral officer (CEO) and handed him a letter of their demands.
The delegation said Kartik Purnima is on November 15. It is known that bath and puja on this occasion is of importance in UP. A large number of people take bath on this occasion, it said.
People reach Kundarki, Meerapur, Ghaziabad and Prayagraj three to four days in advance to participate in the fair and worship on the occasion of Kartik Purnima. Majority of voters may be deprived of voting due to this, the delegation noted.
"The Election Commission is committed to 100 per cent voting. In such a situation, the voting percentage in the byelection may be low due to Kartik Purnima. Therefore, it would be appropriate to fix the date of the byelection as November 20 instead of November 13," it said.
The RLD also made similar demand of changing the poll dates to November 20 due to bathing in river Ganga on the Kartik Purnima, party national spokesperson Anil Dubey said.
Bypolls are set to be held in 10 assembly seats -- Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Karhal (Mainpuri), Milkipur (Ayodhya), Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar), Ghaziabad, Majhawan (Mirzapur), Sisamau (Kanpur city), Khair (Aligarh), Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Kundarki (Moradabad).
Except Milkipur, the Election Commission has announced polls on the remaining nine seats. The polling on these nine seats will be held on November 13.