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EC team on Gujarat submits report to the Commission

The nine-member team, which toured Gujarat last week, is understood to have said in its report that the situation at present is 'not conducive' for polls.

Minorities, constituting 12 per cent of the population, including five per cent still living in relief camps, may not participate in the electoral process under the prevailing circumstances, the team is believed to have said in its report.

It will be a rare visit of the full Commission, which is visiting Gujarat to verify the ground situation before taking a decision on the schedule for the assembly poll.

The only other instance was in 1996 when the three-member body, then headed by T N Seshan, had visited Jammu and Kashmir just before the assembly polls.

EC sources said that CEC J M Lyngdoh and Election Commissioners T S Krishnamurthy and B B Tandon are likely to return on Sunday and the Commission may firm up its opinion on the assembly polls in the state by next week. They will visit Ahmedabad, Vadodara and some other affected areas.

The ruling BJP's demand for polls in or before October is facing stiff opposition from its critics, who argue the state was yet to recover fully from the worst communal riots in recent years in which nearly 800 people, mostly belonging to the minority community were killed.

PTI

Gujarat Elections 2002: The complete coverage

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