Haryana and Maharashtra, States under Congress-led governments for 10 and 15 years respectively, will hold elections on October 15, with counting of votes on October 19, as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission on Friday. The term of the Haryana Assembly comes to an end in October and in Maharashtra it ends in November.
In May, the Congress had won just one of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana while the BJP won seven. In Maharashtra, of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies, the Congress-NCP alliance won only six, while the BJP-Shiv Sena combine won 42, indicating strong anti-incumbency mood in both States.
Announcing the schedule, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) V.S. Sampath, said the model code of conduct comes into effect immediately. It would also be applicable to the Central Government in the case of policies and announcements related to the poll-bound States.
The schedule for the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Jharkhand Assembly elections will be announced later as the terms of the assemblies will end only in January 2015.
With J&K dealing with a devastating flood situation, Mr. Sampath added that the Commission was closely watching the situation and a decision would be taken once a clearer picture emerged. An EC official told The Hindu that the J&K polls will be spread over at least five phases, if not seven as in the last Assembly elections in 2008 and the entire process would take over two months to complete. “All accounted, the EC has time till November first week to take a call,” the official said.
