Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand will go to polls over five phases starting on November 25 to elect their new legislative assemblies, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.
Announcing the election schedule, V.S. Sampath, Chief Election Commissioner said polling in the two states will take place on November 25, December 2, 9, 14 and 20. Besides, three assembly constituencies in Delhi will also go to polls during the first phase of polls in J&K and Jharkhand, Sampath said.
Counting of votes in the two states and for the three assembly seats in Delhi will be done on December 23, the CEC said. The Commission said that the Model Code of Conduct comes into immediate effect. Among other things, the Model Code of Conduct prevents the government in a state going to the polls from making any announcements of new projects, programmes, concessions, financial grants in any form, laying of foundation stones which have the effect of influencing voters in favour of the party in power. Even the Central Government cannot announce key policy decisions which will have implications for the states going to the polls.
The tenure of the Jharkhand assembly expires on January 3 next year while that of the J&K assembly expires on January 19 next year, Sampath said.
There are 81 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand while there are 87 assembly constituencies in J&K. The total electorate in Jharkhand stands at 2.07 crore while there are 72.25 lakh electors in J&K.
Answering questions from the media, Sampath said that the decision to hold polls in J&K was taken as most political parties were in favour of holding elections on time. ``There is no justification to postpone,” the Chief Election Commissioner said.
Sampath added that the floods which have affected the state are unlikely to have an adverse impact on polling. Pointing out that it is difficult to guess polling percentages in a state like J&K, Sampath said that the floods will not have any special impact on polling.
The Chief Election Commissioner said that inquiries made especially about infrastructure where polling stations will be set up for conducting polls in J&K showed that alternate arrangements had been made in places where these had had been affected by the floods.