The Election Commission (EC) is keeping an “open mind” on the timetable to hold Assembly elections in Bihar, EC sources told BusinessLine here on Monday.

The Commission is yet to finalise the holding of elections in September-October this year, they said.

“Holding the elections in September-October does not mean that they have to be completed by October 31. In the past the State elections have extended from September to November. This time also the Commission will have to examine various issues like the weather, examination cycle, holidays and festivals during the time that the elections are held while coming to a firm decision on the dates,” said highly-placed sources in the Commission.

This assumes significance in the light of the ruling Janata Dal (United)’s reservations about holding the polls in September-October, as some news reports had suggested on Monday. “We are ready for polls whenever they are announced. But ideally, they should be held in end-October-November,” Ali Anwar, a senior JD(U) leader, had said on Sunday.

At the moment the EC is only willing to state that July 31 is the last date for publication of final electoral rolls and that the new House has to be constituted by November 29 this year. The Commission is yet to draw up the exact schedule of the polls or even to say in how many phases the elections will be held.

Sources pointed out that the September-October timeline indicated by Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi might be seen to be ideal as August may be too early to hold the polls, given that July 31 is the last date for publication of electoral rolls.

For the previous Assembly elections in Bihar, the EC had announced the schedule on September 6, 2010. At that time the elections were spread over six phases which began on October 21 and ended on November 20.

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