From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Thursday announced the Gujarat Assembly polls for 182 seats in two phases on December 1 and 5, and the results on December 8, along with the counting of votes in Himachal Pradesh that goes to polls on November 12 for the 68-member House.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the Gujarat polls schedule, weeks after declaring the elections in Himachal Pradesh. The first phase is for 89 seats and the second phase for 93 seats, the notifications for which will be announced on November 5 and 10 respectively.
The last date for nominations in the first phase is November 14 and for second phase it is November 17. The scrutiny of nominations in the two phases will be on November 15 and 18 respectively while withdrawals allowed up to November 17 in the first phase and November 21 in the second phase. Over 4.9 crore electors will cast their votes, including 9.8 lakh 80-plus senior citizens and 4.61 lakh first-time voters.
The term of the Gujarat Assembly is up to February 18. In 2017 also, the elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat on different days, floods in Gujarat delaying the elections. Citing the 2017 precedent, the Election Commission did not announce the Gujarat election schedule when it came out with Himachal polls on October 15.
The opposition parties questioned the EC’s rationale in delaying announcement of the Gujarat polls when announcing the Himachal dates, alleging that it helped the ruling BJP gain time to announce more pre-poll sops.
CEC Rajiv Kumar, however, insisted that no rules have been violated as “there is a gap of 40 days between the end of the assemblies in two states and according to the rules it should be at least 30 days so that one result does not impact the other.” The BJP is in power in both the states.
In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party pulled off its sixth consecutive victory in 2017 winning 99 seats as against the Congress bagging 77 despite a spireted fight. In terms of percentage, the BJP was far ahead with 49.05% votes as against 42.97% in the straight fight. This time, it will be a triangular fight as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has also entered the fray with loud campaign.
The Congress witnessed a series of defections after the last Assembly elections, reducing its number in the House to 62 as against the BJP’s number going up to 111 in the current House.
