BJP confident of winning assembly polls in all five states

Confident of emerging victorious again in the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday said that the party will be the obvious choice of the people in Congress-dominant Delhi and Rajasthan as well.

"With good work of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, we will definitely come back to power, and with the incapable governments of Rajasthan and Delhi, the BJP will be the people's mandate," BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi told media here today.

He further said that the popularity of Narendra Modi would definitely help in the accumulation of votes for the party.

"There is no doubt that Narendra Modi is the most popular leader in the country, which is evident from all sort of surveys. And definitely we will have an advantage of this," he added.

Earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath announced the polling dates for five states, including Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram.

Addressing a news conference this afternoon, Sampath said elections for Chhattisgarh would be held first and in two phases-on November 11 and 19.

Elections in Madhya Pradesh would be held on November 25. Elections in Rajasthan would be held on December 1, while elections in Delhi and Mizoram would be held on December 4, he added.

Sampath also said that the Model Code of Conduct for elections in these five states comes into effect immediately.

He said that in all 11 crore people would be eligible to exercise their right to vote at 1,30,000 polling stations in these five states.

He also said that all measures are in place to conduct free and fair polls, including elaborate security arrangements.

Sampath said due protection would be given to Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste voters and at vulnerable booths.

He announced that for the first time, the Election Commission would be deploying Central Awareness Observers to motivate voters to exercise their franchise in a bid to increase the voter turnout.

Taking note of the Supreme Court's recent ruling, giving voters the right to reject candidates in the electoral fray, Sampath said the Election Commission is taking adequate measures to educate both voters and officials deployed for election duty for the same.

He said the counting of votes for all five states would take place on December 8.