In a blow to the ruling Congress, the Election Commission on Wednesday ruled out any change in the schedule for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections and ordered the Government to strictly enforce the model code of conduct. “There will be no change in the poll dates. We are going ahead with the schedule announced already by the EC,” Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami said here after meeting political parties and top government officials here. Flanked by two other members of the EC, Naveen Chawla and S R Quraishi, the CEC said: “So far only one party (the Congress) has demanded a change in the polling dates. The rest have fully agreed with the EC decision. Before coming to Shimla, we took a decision at the Commission to stick to the schedule.” The only issue which the EC agreed to examine related to holding of examinations by the Himachal Pradesh State Board of School Education. Board Chairman B R Rahi, the CEC said, had written a letter this morning informing them that the exam schedule clashed with the elections to the 65 Assembly constituencies going to polls in the second phase on December 19. “We have asked the Chief Secretary to take up the issue with the board and explore possibilities of re-adjusting the examination schedule, which has not yet been announced. The Commission is willing to advance the December 19 polling if the examinations can’t be postponed,” he offered. However, Gopalaswami added a rider to this. “We know the fact that the post of the chairman of the State Board of School Education is held by a political person,” he said. The EC announcement is a setback for Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who met the CEC in Delhi two days ago seeking a change in the election dates, saying December would be too cold for polling. Asked about this, Gopalaswami said: “We considered all the aspects, including inclement weather, before taking the decision.” He added that they didn’t consult anyone on the dates. “We only take views.”
