New Delhi: Two opposition Congress party-ruled states, Maharashtra and Haryana, will vote to elect their new state legislative assemblies on October 15.
India’s autonomous Election Commission on Friday announced the schedule for polling in the two states. Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath said that the poll panel would fix dates for polling in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand at a later stage after assessment of situation, once normalcy returns in the flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides holding polls to elect 288 members of the Maharashtra assembly and 90 members to Haryana assembly, by-elections to Beed and Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra and Odisha respectively will also take place on October 15.
The two constituencies fell vacant following deaths of federal minister Gopinath Munde and the Biju Janata Dal lawmaker Hemendra Chandra Singh. In addition, by-elections to fill one vacancy each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat will be held on the same day.
Sampath said that the model code of conduct had come into force with immediate effect and listed several measures the poll panel had initiated to keep polls clean of money and muscle powers.
While the poll process starts with filing of nominations from September 20, counting of votes will take place on October 19.
Stakes are expected to be high for both India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and its arch-rival Congress party in the two states for different reasons. The Congress party along with its ally Nationalist Congress Party has been in power in the western state Maharashtra since 1999, Congress party has been ruling the northern state Haryana since 2005.
Retaining power in the two states is crucial for revival of the Congress party, which suffered a humiliating defeat in the May general elections, it will be an acid test for the Narendra Modi government at the centre and seen as a reality check on Modi’s popularity as BJP and its allies had performed exceedingly well in the two states in the general elections.
Maharashtra has total 82.59 million voters while Haryana has 16.15 million. Election Commission will initiate various measures to increase people’s participation in the voting process and set up 90,403 polling booths in Maharashtra and 16,244 polling booths in Haryana.
One of the firsts would be the poll panel’s firm decision to ask all candidates not to leave any column of nomination paper blank which will automatically lead to rejection of nomination.
The poll panel announced that it will keep a close watch on election expenses by the candidates to ensure money is not used to allure voters. All candidates have been advices to open separate poll accounts in banks and make all withdrawal from there to meet all poll expenses.
The panel would also closely monitor paid news contents in both print and electronic media.
