No recommendation to dissolve Jharkhand assembly early, says CEC

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said on Saturday that assembly polls in Jharkhand were not announced along with those of Haryana and Maharashtra as the term of its assembly ends in January and there was no recommendation from the state Chief Minister for early polls.

He also said that the debate on simultaneous elections had not settled yet. Answering queries at a press conference here, he said that the term of Jharkhand assembly ends on January 9 and that of Delhi assembly on February 22.

"If the leader of the House had dissolved the House and sought early polls, the commission would have done that. Why should the Commission want to prepone it (the polls)," he said.

He said there was no consensus among political parties on simultaneous polls.

"And simultaneous elections debate, that debate is there but it has not been settled at all. It is something which is being debated. Unless there is a very clear consensus among political parties on this issue this cannot be taken already as a given template," said he.

Answering a query about the repeal of Article 370 being mentioned in election campaigns, he said that the Parliament had taken the decision and the only forum to challenge it was the Supreme Court.

Assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra will be held on October 21. The results will be out on October 24.