"No need to hold polls in seven phases": NCP (SCP)'s Jayant Patil

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 28 : Voicing his misgivings over the schedule for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) leader Jayant Patil on Thursday said there was no need to hold the polls in seven phases as 3 to 4 phases would have been enough.
Addressing a press conference in the country's commercial capital on Thursday, Patil said, "The elections are scheduled to take place in seven phases across the country. I don't think there was a need to hold the elections in so many phases. Just 3-4 phases would have been enough. In Maharashtra, the elections are to be held in five phases. There was no need for the polls in the state to be such a long-drawn affair."
He said the BJP-led NDA at the Centre should come clean for whose benefit the polls were scheduled across seven phases. "In previous years, general elections used to be done and dusted in 3-4 phases. I think the decision (to hold the polls in 7 phases) was taken keeping someone's interests at heart. The scheduling was meant to give them more time to campaign," the NCP (SCP) leader added.
Speaking on the transfer of top officials of the State Election Commission, he said while one can understand the need for additional security at sensitive booths, "there was no need to transfer the election commissioner of one state to another".
"Never before has there been any pre-election guideline on what people can speak as we are part of a democracy that guarantees free speech. If someone says something objectionable, the Election Commission can and should take note of it and act accordingly. However, since a guideline has been issued now, we have to abide by it. However, if there is a guideline in place, everyone, including the country's topmost leader, has to follow it. If the rules apply only to the Opposition then it's unfortunate. It goes against the grain of democracy," Patil said.
Weighing in on MVA ally Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), which named candidates for nine Lok Sabha seats in the state on Wednesday, Patil said, "We are waiting for Prakash Ambedkar-ji to join us and fight the elections together. I believe he will eventually come with the Maha Vikas Aghadi. We all want him to join us."
Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases--on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of the 25 seats it contested in the state while the undivided Shiv Sena secured 18 out of the 23 seats it fought.
The undivided NCP, part of the opposition alliance, contested 19 seats, winning 4.
However, following the split in the Shiva Sena 2022, the Eknath Shinde faction aligned with the BJP.
The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general elections.