The Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, led by former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, on Saturday submitted a memorandum to Governor Acharya Dev Vrat on the postponement of the Shimla Municipal Corporation elections.
Seeking his intervention, the BJP strongly condemned the Virbhadra Singh government and the State Election Commission (SEC) and alleged that the SEC was working under the diktat of the government.
The party alleged that the Congress, fearing a defeat, before the Assembly elections, had got the municipal elections postponed.
The Congress had recently lost the Bhoranj by-election to the BJP, giving the BJP a huge boost.
The civic polls were deferred on the grounds that the revision of electoral rolls had not been completed.
The BJP alleged the revision, which was to be completed by May 5, had been deliberately delayed. Now after the special revision it will be over by June 23 and the elections might take place in July, the BJP said.
Earlier, the High Court had directed the government to file a reply within two weeks on the delay in completing the election process and its failure to conduct elections before the end of the present civic body’s term.
BJP activists had challenged the matter in the court, calling it “highly undemocratic, unconstitutional and in violation of Article 243.”
