Maharashtra and Haryana will vote on October 15
NEW DELHI : Haryana and Maharashtra will elect new Assemblies on October 15 and the results will be declared October 19, Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath announced on Friday.With the above announcement, “Model Code of Conduct comes into force in both the states,” added the Chief Election Commissioner.The poll dates were announced by the Chief Election Commission VS Sampath at a press conference here.
He further said, “The last date for filing of nominations in both states is September 27. Date of scrutiny of nominations is September 29 and the last date for withdrawing nominations is October1.”
In Haryana, the Congress will hope to make a comeback. The state assembly has 90 seats. Maharashtra has been governed since 1999 by a coalition of the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party. The Maharashtra legislature has 288 seats. In the national election, the BJP won 23 of the state’s 48 seats; its long-time partner, the Shiv Sena, got 18; the Congress was reduced to just two.
The Congress and Mr Pawar’s party have not yet finalized how they will divide those seats between their candidates. Ditto for the BJP-Sena alliance. With seat-sharing talks still not out of the way, the BJP-Sena alliance may campaign without a chief ministerial candidate. Sources say the parties believe a perceived “Modi wave” may benefit them even in the state polls. In Haryana, the main opposition party currently is Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal or INLD.
Another regional player is the Haryana Janhit Congress, which was formed by former chief minister Bhajan Lal and is now led by his son, Kuldeep Bishnoi. Just weeks ago, the BJP ended its three-year alliance with Mr Bishnoi, whose party did not win a single seat in May’s national election.
The BJP won seven of the state’s 10 parliamentary seats; Mr Chautala’s INLD got two. The state’s ruling Congress managed just one seat. Polls are also due in flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath said, “On J&K we are watching the situation very closely. After things come to some shape we will find out.”
