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Elections to the legislative assemblies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh and Telangana will be held between November 12 and December 7, counting of votes for all the five states will take place on December 11, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.
The Commission also announced that elections for Shimoga, Bellary and Mandya Parliamentary constituencies in Karnataka will be held on November 3 while counting for these three Parliamentary constituencies will be taken up on November 6.
Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said in a press conference that while the elections to the Chhattisgarh legislative Assembly will be spread over two phases, the elections to the other four states Assemblies will be conducted in a single phase.
The first phase of elections for 18 Assembly seats in south Chhattisgarh will be held on November 12 while the second phase for the remaining 72 seats will be held on November 20. Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will go to polls on November 28 while Rajasthan and Telangana will go to polls on December 7.
Madhya Pradesh Assembly has 230 seats, Rajasthan has 200 Assembly seats and Mizoram has 40 Assembly seats.
Rawat said that the Model Code of Conduct comes into ``effect immediately” in these states and that the provisions of the Code will apply to the whole of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Telangana and will be applicable to all candidates, political parties and the Governments of these states. ``The Model Code of Conduct shall also be applicable to the Union Government insofar as announcements/policy decisions pertaining to/for these States are concerned,” he added.
The strength of the electorate varies from 5.03 crore in Madhya Pradesh to 7.68 lakh voters in Mizoram while Rajasthan has 4.7 crore voters.
The expenditure ceiling for each candidate has been fixed at Rs 28 lakhs in all the states except for Mizoram where it is Rs 20 lakhs, Rawat said.
Accepting that the Commission had not visited Telangana and Mizoram before announcing the poll dates, Rawat said that in the case of Telangana the Commission went along with the report of an Election Commission team which had met with the senior officials of the state and police officials to ensure that the state was ready to hold free and fair polls. The Chief Election Commissioner said that the Commission will visit both the States soon.
On delay in announcement of poll dates
The Election Commission denied that it was under pressure from the government to delay the announcement of the poll dates for five assemblies whose term is about to expire.
``Politicians and political parties have to see politics (in everything) due to their inherent nature,” Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat said when questioned about the Congress party’s allegation that the timing of the Commission’s press conference to announce the dates was pushed back to 3 p.m. as the Prime Minister was addressing a rally in Ajmer at 1 p.m. Earlier the press conference was scheduled for 12.30.
In a Tweet Randeep Singh Surjewala had said ``3 facts Draw your own conclusions: ECI announces PC at 12.30 today to announce election dates to the five states, PM Modi is addressing a rally in Ajmer, Rajasthan at 1 p.m. today, ECI suddenly changes the time of announcement and PC to 3 p.m. Independence of ECI?”
Refuting the allegations Rawat said that the Commission decided to change the timing of the announcement for a variety of reasons including the Chief Secretary of a State (he did not name the state) asking that because of a cyclone forecast and bad weather the election date announcement be pushed back and because of a High court order see king to see the final electoral rolls of the state before they were published.
Incidentally this is not the first time in the recent past that the opposition has questioned the neutrality of the Election Commission and accused it of pushing back the announcement of dates for Assembly elections to benefit the Centre. The same allegations were also made during the recently conducted Gujarat Assembly elections where the opposition alleged that the Commission announced the dates only after the Prime Minister had visited the state. At that time too the Commission had denied the allegation pointing out the state Chief Secretary had sought a postponement of the announcement of dates so that officials who would otherwise get busy with poll duties could be used for flood relief work. Parts of Gujarat were reeling under floods at that time.
Madhya Pradesh single phase - 230 constituencies
Date of nomination: November 7
Last date for withdrawal: November 14
Poll day: November 28
Chhattisgarh first phase southern part-18 constituencies (LWE affected area)
Date of nomination: October 16
Last date: October 23
Last date for withdrawal: October 26
Poll day: November 12
Second phase-72 constituencies
Poll date: November 20
Rajasthan-200 seats and Telangana (single phase)
Date of nomination: November 12
Last date for withdrawal: November 22
Poll day: December 7
Mizoram-40 constituencies
Date of nomination: November 7
Last date for withdrawal: November 14
Poll day: November 28
(With inputs from The Hindu)
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