The chores for postponing forthcoming State Assembly elections due in October this year was growing after MNS president Raj Thackeray demanded that the Assembly polls should be postponed, said former Pradesh Congress Committee president, Ranjeet Deshmukh today, demanded that not only Assembly elections be postponed but felt President’s rule be imposed in the state.
Thackeray had earlier in the day also echoed the same sentiment urging to postponed the Assembly elections. He would be writing to the Election Commission to put off the polls, Thackeray told a news channel in Mumbai.
The Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis later speaking to reporters in Sangali while reviewing the flood situation, said it is for the Election Commission to decide and called for not politicising the floods situation to political parties.
The flood situation is worsening in Maharashtra and is worse than Butibori floods some years ago and five districts including Kolhapur, Sangli and Nashik have been badly affected and other adjoining districts are too affected by the flood which has claimed few lives, Deshmukh, a former State Agriculture Minister, said at a press conference, here in the evening, today.
He said the relief and rehabilitation work will continue for more than one or two years till final settlements and if elections are announced these works will suffer and may not be implemented in due to poll code of conduct. Besides the State machinery would be engaged in election duty and the people who have suffered monetary, agriculture and material losses would be left in lurch.
The floodwater would take some time to recede and later clearing of debris, and retrieving of; livestock and burial will be a daunting task. The entire villages have been submerged and people have been rendered homeless.
Deshmukh said the State government will have to deploy a sufficient number of relief and rehabilitation teams along with medical teams to arrest the epidemics due to in sanitation and filth.
He said it would be appropriate to postpone not only State Assembly elections but also those of Zilla Parishads, Panchayat Samits and other local bodies.
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