The Election Commission has postponed two youth-focused voter awareness programmes scheduled in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut Thursday and Varanasi on September 28 that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar was to address, officials said Friday.

This comes two days after differences within the Election Commission over the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, writing to the Cabinet Secretary about the conduct of an EC officer.

On Thursday, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi called for CEC Kumar to resign. The youth pressure group Cockroach Janta Party also called for his resignation, saying they would launch a protest if he did not do so within 48 hours.

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The CEC was to visit Meerut on Thursday to address a regional conference on Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs), the EC’s platform to spread awareness among school and college students, and ECINET, the EC’s portal and app for voter services. On September 28, he was to interact with the youth at a programme in Varanasi.

Responding to queries regarding the postponement, an EC official said: “Adjustments in dates of events are an ongoing process which is necessitated by various factors such as availability of venues, schedules of higher authorities, natural factors, etc. There have been many occasions when the ELC conferences have been postponed/dates changed earlier, such as in Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Uttarakhand. Moreover, the decision to postpone these two particular conferences was taken on September 21.”

Sources say the programmes have been postponed indefinitely.

“In both cities, CEC had to address Electoral Literacy Clubs with a gathering of nearly 1,500 people, including students, teachers, and other representatives from educational institutions. He also had dedicated session of interaction with nearly 500 BLOs from several assembly constituencies,” said an official in UP.

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“Preparations had started for these events in both the cities, and venues had been identified. But ECI on September 21 communicated that CEC’s visit has been postponed,” the official added.

So far, EC has had five conferences of the revamped ELCs, (ELC 2.0), and ECINET, with the last one being in Ahmedabad on September 11.

“Addressing the participants comprising students and teachers from schools, colleges and universities across Gujarat, CEC Shri Gyanesh Kumar described students as the future of the nation, stating that ELCs are imperative in carrying forth the understanding of electoral processes and enriching democracy,” an EC statement on September 11 had said.

“He underlined the need for students and young electors to familiarise themselves with India’s electoral system, democratic values, electoral registration, polling and counting processes, and the role and functioning of the Election Commission of India,” it added.

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The Electoral Literacy Clubs comprise all students from Class 9 to Class 12 in schools and all 18- to 21-year-olds in colleges. The ELC programme includes classroom activities and games in the participating schools and colleges focused on voter awareness.