All six national parties, which met at a pre-election consultation convened here by the Commission, agreed that Indian democracy was strong enough not to be thrown off course by the border conflict.

If the situation worsened then all parties could ``sit together and take a decision in national interest,'' said senior BJP leader V K Malhotra. However, ``the BJP believes army personnel, our jawans and officers fighting the enemy at the borders should be allowed to vote by proxy,'' Malhotra said. But the five other national parties, the Congress, CPI, CPM, Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) and the Janata Dal are firmly opposed to a caretaker government taking legislative decisions through the ordinance route.

``Proxy voting does not hold any validity since Indian democracy is based on secret ballot,'' said Congress Working Committee member Pranab Mukherjee.The Congress also felt any changes in the law through an ordinance should not be carried out by a caretaker government as it has neither the authority nor the mandate, Mukherjee added. His views were echoed by Bahujan Samaj Party leader Kanshi Ram, who felt a caretaker government should not usurp the role of the Parliament. ``Parliament's role should be performed by Parliament alone,'' Kanshi Ram told mediapersons after the meeting.

The issue of extending proxy voting facilities to defence personnel has been hanging fire for a long time. The Election Commission had discussed the issue with defence authorities and a bill on allowing proxy vote was brought before Parliament but fell through with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. Asfor deploying paramilitary forces during the polls, Mukherjee felt the polling could be spread over a longer period. A shortage of security forces before the polls may make such a move necessary, Election Commission sources admitted. Briefing mediapersons after the two-hour long meeting, Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill said polls to the six Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir would be held along with the rest of the country.

The schedule would be announced in the ``near future'' and will ensure that the 13th Lok Sabha will be sworn in before the October 20 deadline, he added.The Election Commission is also examining the possibility of deploying the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and retired security force personnel for maintaining law and order during the elections.