New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today (Dec 17, 2003) urged the Election Commission (EC) to hold Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh "preferably in February and not beyond the first week of March (2004)" in view of "various compelling reasons."

A TDP Parliamentary delegation led by senior party leader K Yerran Naidu, met Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh and the other two Election Commissioners T S Krishnamurthy and B B Tandon and urged the poll body for early polls in the state, where the Assembly has been dissolved.

Listing out various reasons, Chief Minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu said in the memorandum that from March 17 to late April, it would be a "strain" on the administrative machinery to hold elections in view of SSC and Intermediate examinations in the state.

Not only a number of teachers would not be available for poll duty, availability of educational institutions for polling and counting purposes would pose a problem, Naidu said.

"It would be convenient that elections are held prior to SSC and Intermediate examinations," he said.

Observing that the final publication of electoral rolls in the state was scheduled on January 20 next year (2004), Naidu said even if the poll notification by the Commission was issued in about a week of the final publication of electoral rolls, it should be possible to hold the elections in the middle of February 2004 and certainly well before the SSC and Intermediate examinations in March.

"We would therefore be grateful if the poll announcement is issued before the electoral rolls are finally published on January 20, 2004, so that the process for conducting the elections can begin in right earnest", he said.

The Chief Minister also pointed out the "difficulties" in passing the budget for 2004-05 in case elections were held beyond March.

Yerran Naidu said that the Election Commissioners gave a patient hearing and assured that all points would be looked into before finalising the date.

PTI