Tamar bypoll deferred

Vijay Deo Jha Ranchi Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The by-election of Tamar scheduled to be held on December 29 have been deferred. As per the decision taken by the Election Commission of India the by-election would be held on January 5 whereas the counting of votes would take place on January 8.

Citing its inability to mobilise the requisite number of central security personnel for the by-election on time the EC in an official note sent to Jharkhand Chief Electoral officer on Monday afternoon directed to hold the election on January 5.

Informing this decision the Chief Electoral Officer, Jharkhand, Debasish Gupta said: "By-election of Tamar has been extended since the EC has not been able to mobilize sufficient number of central forces." However, he declined to reveal the numbers of security forces that EC wanted to deploy. But the informed sources said that the State Election Commission was directed to deploy about 25 companies of central forces such as Central Reserve Police Forces.

The sources further added that till this date it could deploy only 11 such companies. Owing to security reasons - Tamar is a Maoist-infested area where maximum numbers of polling booths have been declared super-sensitive - the commission could not risk conducting the election without fool-proof security measures, sources said.An official of the State electoral office who did not want to go on record confided that the EC took the decision after getting intelligence input which indicated large scale violence and irregularities in the proper deployment of forces at every booth during the by-election.

The political class reacted cautiously over the decision where as others (JDU candidate) reacted sharply to it. The senior BJP leader Arjun Munda said that the NDA wanted the by-election should be conducted fairly. "Security has been a thing a thing of utmost importance for the political parties…but the inability of the EC to mobilize forces raises question", he added.

But for JD (U) candidate Vasundhara Munda it was a well calculate move to give the Chief Minister Shibu Soren some more time to manage the thing in his own favour. "The reason as cited by the commission can amaze anybody…how they managed to mobilize the forces so quickly for conducting assembly elections of five states a month back", Munda questioned the rationale.

Soren is contesting the by-election as the official candidate of the UPA and the NDA have expressed its fear about the use of the official machinery in his favour.

But the president state BJP Pashupati Nath Singh preferred to comment only after going through the details of the decision and said that the NDA was prepared to contest the election on coming Monday. "We (NDA) have demand the EC to conduct a free and fair election and also want that the model code of conduct must not be flouted. If security is indeed a bona fide reason behind it than the NDA would ask the EC to ensure tight security", he added.

Security might a reason behind the extension of the date but the decision has come as a great succor to Soren. Not willing to be quoted a senior Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader said that as time was extended Soren could use the occasion to consolidate his support base in Tamar.