New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday announced a single-phase election for both Haryana and Maharashtra on October 21. Counting for both the states will take place on October 24.
The announcement was made by chief election commissioner Sunil Arora, who was accompanied by election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra Varma.
Arora said Haryana has a total of 1.28 crore voters while Maharashtra has 8.94 crore registered voters. He claimed 100% of voters in Haryana now have voter ID cards.
The EC will take a call on the Jharkhand elections later. Many were expecting the state to be clubbed with Haryana and Maharashtra, but that did not happen. Incidentally, elections for all three states were due before the year-end.
Expenditure ceiling at Rs 25 lakh, voluntary code for social media
The ceiling for election expense per candidate, the CEC said, has been kept at Rs 25 lakhs. He said two senior officers will be sent to Maharashtra to see that candidates do not cross the expenditure limit.
Arora said all candidates would be required to furnish full details of their criminal past. If any column in the prescribed form is left blank, the nomination would be rejected. With the announcement of the polls, he said the model code of conduct would come into force in the two states.
As for the campaign, he said, social media is a new phenomenon and before the Lok Sabha polls, a voluntary code of ethics was devised which was largely adhered to. Arora hoped that the code would also be followed now.
What happened in 2014
As in 2014, the Election Commission said the entire polling and counting process in Haryana and Maharashtra would be completed before Diwali, which is on October 27.
In 2014, the poll schedule for Maharashtra and Haryana assemblies was announced on September 20 and the voting took place on October 15, while the counting of votes was taken up on October 19. Diwali that year was celebrated on October 23.
That year, the EC had on October 26 announced five-phase polling for both Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. Jharkhand voted in five phases between November 25 and December 23. The polls were spread out in view of left-wing extremism in the state.
BJP won Haryana for first time in 2014
As for Haryana, the term of the 90-member assembly expires on November 2. The state is at present ruled by the BJP, which formed its first government in 2014 by bagging 47 seats. The Indian National Lok Dal had got the second-highest tally with 19 seats. The Congress, which had ruled Haryana for two terms till then under Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was relegated to the third spot and managed to win only 15 seats.
BJP later installed an active Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangathan member, Manohar Lal Khattar as its chief minister. The last five years have seen a lot of political turmoil in the state. There were three major incidents of violence – at Rampal’s ashram in Sirsa, during Jat agitation in Rohtak and during Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim’s appearance at a court in Panchkula.
Split in opposition biggest hope for BJP in Haryana
However, this period also saw a split in the Chautala family. Former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala’s elder son, Ajay Singh, moved away with his son and former MP Dushyant Chautala and floated his own Jannayak Janata Party. The Congress saw an ongoing tussle between Hooda and former state unit president Ashok Tanwar, which has left the party in disarray. Though Tanwar was recently replaced by Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja as the PCC president, the party has suffered at both block and district level.
With divisions in the opposition camp being pronounced, the BJP is hopeful of a comeback and has given the call of “Abki baar 75 paar” (This time more than 75 seats). It has also kickstarted its campaign in the state and recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Rohtak to mark the completion of CM’s Jan Adhikar Yatra roadshow across the state.
Old allies come together in Maharashtra to take on BJP
In Maharashtra, BJP had won 112 out of the 288 seats. It had formed the government by allying with Shiv Sena that won 63 seats. The Congress had managed to win only 42.
But now as the BJP, which had put up another new face in Devendra Phadnawis as the chief minister, goes out to seek another term, the Congress has got into a pre-poll alliance with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.
The NCP had contested the 2014 election as an ally of the Samajwadi Party after Congress had announced a list of 118 candidates without consulting it. With that, the 15-year-old alliance of Congress and NCP had snapped in the state. The NCP had bagged 41 seats and nearly 18% votes.
Significantly, the Congress had polled a little over 18% votes and together their vote share would have been more than BJP’s 31%. In Maharashtra too, Modi launched the poll campaign from Nashik on September 18.
The term of the Maharashtra assembly expires on November 9.