Devotees gather at the bank of Ganga river during 'Kartik Purnima'
Credit: PTI File Photo
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP on Thursday sought deferment of the by-polls at nine assembly seats in the state by a week in view of the festival of 'Kartik Purnima' on November 15 when millions of Hindu devotees travel to religious towns in the state to take holy dip in Ganga and other rivers.
The state unit of the BJP wrote a letter to the Election Commission (EC) urging it to hold the by-polls on November 20 instead of November 13.
''Bathing and offering puja on the bank of the holy rivers are of special religious significance on Kartik Purnima and a large number of devotees take bath and perform pujas on this day,'' the saffron party said in its letter.
''The devotees leave their homes three-four days before the Kartik Purnima to take part in the fair and perform pujas and a large number of voters will not be able to exercise their franchise if the by-polls are held on November 13,'' it said.
The EC had a few days back declared the schedule of the by-polls in nine assembly seats in the state. By-poll at Milkipur assembly seat was not included in the schedule owing to the pendency of an election petition in the Allahabad high court.
The petitioner and BJP leader Baba Gorakhnath's lawyer said that the petition would be withdrawn. It was not however clear if a by-poll would be conducted in Milkpur seat along with the nine other seats.
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, however, claimed that the BJP knew that it would lose Milkipur and therefore had got the by-poll deferred there. ''BJP had conducted an internal survey in Milkipur...it revealed that BJP would lose there and so the election was deferred there,'' Akhilesh said.
In the LS polls, BJP had won 33 seats while its alliance partners RLD and Apna Dal won two and one seats respectively in UP. In the 2019 LS polls, BJP and its alliance partners had won 64 seats. The SP had won 37 seats while its alliance partner Congress had won six seats in the recent LS polls. The BSP had drawn a blank.