Ahmedabad, 9 July 2012

Gujarat Congress in its representation to the Election Commission of India(ECI) today requested to hold Gujarat assembly election on one day, in single phase.

Sharing the details on Gujarat Congress’s discussion with the ECI today, party leader Balubhai Patel told media persons, “Gujarat Congress has asked the Chief Election Commissioner of India that the party is ready for election at any time, and as Gujarat is a peaceful state, the election should be held on one day, in single phase.”

“Government officers on election duty are unable to vote. There should be some forumla, so that these officers can vote,” Balubhai said.

“There should be Mansa by-election style system for migrated voters, slip distribution, and deployment of officer per booth in place,” he added.

“Officers involved in government programmes who are more loyal to the ruling party instead of government should be kept away from election duty, he further said.

“We have also demanded that there should be permanent Director General of Police in the state,” he said.

It should be mentioned that Gujarat Congress had demanded single phase poll in 2007 also, but the ECI had given two-phase poll which was BJP’s demand at that time. In 2002 Gujarat had witnessed single phase poll, while in 1995 the state had two phase poll. Gujarat has total 182 assembly seats.

Balubhai Patel, CJ Chavda, Girish Parmar and Khurshid Saiyed were part of the Gujarat Congress delegation that participated in the meeting called by CEC.

Read from archive: Gujarat 2012: A quick look at possible schedule of election