Amidst all kinds of speculation over poll dates in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalswamy made it clear that the election commission was in no position to chalk out an election schedule in view of the prevailing mess in electoral rolls of the state.
Gopalswamy told the press on Thursday evening, "January 3 is the deadline fixed for finalisation of all electoral rolls in the state and unless that is done, we cannot take a decision on the schedule for the elections in UP."
He said, "Only 67 per cent voters of the state have received photo identity cards, while there is an unending list of complaints about fudging in the electoral rolls."
Expressing shock at the state of electoral rolls, he said, "of the 46 lakh (4.6 million) inclusions of new voters in the electoral rolls, as many as 10.61 lakh (1.06 million) objections have been received so far by the election officials."
Though he remained totally evasive on the poll dates, he declared, "Elections will be held positively before May 14, 2007, as the next state assembly has to be necessarily constituted on or before that date, when the
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