EC postpones Shimla municipal polls

The elections to Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) to be held by end of this month have been postponed following complaints of large scale discrepancies in electoral rolls. The State election Commission on Wednesday took cognizance of complaints by political parties and candidates and ordered revision of electoral rolls to be published by June 23, implying that the elections are unlikely to be held before mid July.

A spokesman of the commission said here today that as per the directions of the State Election Commission, the Election Registration Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, prepared and notified the

electoral rolls on 5 May, showing the number of total electors as 88,167 whereas the CEO of the state had informed that the total number of electors enrolled by them was 85,546 for the MC area. He said both the electoral rolls were prepared with reference to same qualifying date (January 1, 2017) and the difference was on the higher side while 2200 applications were still pending with the revising authorities.