Most parties agree on May date for polls

Political parties today appeared to be converging on the idea of having Lok Sabha elections in May after the harvest season and school examinations are over in most parts of the country.

This appeared to be the broad consensus at the four-and-a-half hour meeting between the leaders of 39 political parties and the members of the Election Commission — Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami and election commissioners Navin B Chawla and SY Quraishi.

Wearing smiles and posing as a team, Gopalaswami — whose has written to President Pratibha Patil seeking Chawla’s removal — and Chawla gave an all-is-well picture as they settled down to the business of drawing a road map for the elections.

“Initially, we felt a little uneasy. But as the meeting progressed, all the commissioners were freely intervening and replying to us,’’ said the general secretary of a regional party who attended the meeting.

While a majority of the leaders, including those from the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), asked the commission to limit the period over which the elections would be held, the commission said security concerns were the reasons why the polls were becoming a prolonged exercise. Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) asked the commission not to stretch the polls beyond three weeks.

Sources said leaders cutting across political lines asked the commission to come down heavily on surrogate advertisements during campaigning. Gopalaswami said the commission had drawn up strict measures to monitor surrogate advertisements. He also hinted at harsher measures to check the use of muscle power.

Another step the commission is likely to take in these elections is to ban publication and airing of opinion and exit polls till the last phase of polling is over. “Gopalaswami hinted that the Election Commission was consulting the Press Council of India for issuing guidelines for this,’’ said a source.

Although no leader discuss the controversy related to the CEC’s letter during the meeting, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi later said, “We are concerned that a constitutional body like the Election Commission has been shrouded in controversy just when it is performing the most important democratic exercise.”

Yechury said he was happy to see all the commissioners together.

The Election Commission would continue its consultation — with the state election commissioners, directors general of police and chief secretaries.