Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday suggested preponing the Lok Sabha elections to February or postponing for October-November to provide relief to people from the scorching heat. Speaking to reporters after casting his vote at polling booth number 326 at a school in Raj Bhawan in Patna, Kumar also advised that elections should not be held over such a long duration, adding that elections should wrap up in two-three phases. He added that there should not be a huge gap between the two phases.p elections

“Such a long drawn elections should not be held in such an intense heat conditions. This is not appropriate time (conducive atmosphere) for holding elections. It must be either held in February-March or October-November in two to three phases in our country,” Kumar told reporters here.

“There should be unanimity among people that there should be constitutional arrangement that whenever there is election, it should be held at aforementioned time (Feb-Mar or Oct-Nov) and should not be held in so many phases,” the CM said, adding that there is no point having big gap between two phases of polling.

Kumar said that ideally, elections should be held in one phase across the country but since the country is so big, it should be held in two or three phases keeping in mind the hilly areas of north east states and Jammu and Kashmir.

Kumar who also is the president of Janata Dal (United) said that once the results are out, he will write to all political parties chiefs to deliberate on the matter.

Replying to a question, he stated that the long drawn elections can’t be seen as mismanagement. The Bihar Chief Minister said, “After the elections are over, I, as a president of my party, will write letters to the presidents of all political parties for discussion on the issue (timing for holding elections) despite the fact that we have so much differences over many issues.”

In the seventh phase, a total of 59 parliamentary seats are going to polls. According to Election Commission data, over 10.1 crore people are eligible to cast their ballots in this phase. The states where polling is taking place today include Uttar Pradesh (13 seats), Bihar (8 seats), West Bengal (9 seats), Madhya Pradesh (8 seats), Himachal Pradesh (4), Jharkhand (3), Punjab (13) and Chandigarh (1). In 2014, the BJP had won 30 of 59 seats.

Also, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi is going to polls in this phase. Results will be declared on May 23.