Assembly polls in Maha, Haryana, Arunachal on Oct 13

Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh will go to polls on October 13 to elect new assemblies in the first major test of popularity for major political parties after the Lok Sabha elections.

The counting of votes will take place on October 22 in all the three states which are ruled by Congress which shares power in Maharashtra with NCP as a major coalition partner.

Maharashtra has a 288-member assembly, Haryana a 90-member House and Arunachal Pradesh assembly has 60 members.

While the notification, signalling the start of filing of nominations, will be issued on September 18, the last date for nomination is September 25, scrutiny the next day. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is September 29, the Election Commission announced here today.

 

The polls will be held with the help of Electronic Voting Machines and Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla dismissed all doubts about their functioning. "They are functioning properly and we have no doubts from our side."

There are 7,50,575 electors in Arunachal Pradesh, 1,20,63,257 in Haryana and 7,56,34,525 in Maharashtra.

Assembly elections for Haryana were advanced by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government earlier this month in the backdrop of Congress' good show in Lok Sabha elections by bagging 9 out of 10 seats in the state.

Addresing a joint press conference along with Election Commissioners S Y Quraishi and V S Sampath, Chawla said the code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect.

"All the provisions of the model code will apply to the whole of the three states and will be applicable to all candidates, political parties, the state governments concerned and the union government from today itself," he said.

The EC said the identification of voters at the polling booth will be compulsory at the time of polls.

"Electors who have been provided with photo identity cards shall be identified through that only," Chawla said asking voters, who have not yet got these cards, to obtain them urgently.

There are 2,061 polling stations in Arunachal Pradesh, 12,894 in Haryana and 82,028 in Maharashtra.

Replying to a question, the CEC said all steps have been taken to provide security in all the three states including the naxalite affected areas in Maharashtra.

Based on the assesment of the ground situation, central forces and state armed police drawn from other states will be deployed during the elections, he said.

To a query why the elections in Jharkhand were not being held simultaneously, the CEC said it does not have jurisdiction to hold the polls there now. This was because the term of the assembly there is ending on March 9 next year and EC has only six months jurisdiction to advance polls, he said.