Five states to see high-stakes poll battle before 2019 Lok Sabha Elections

Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, MP, Mizoram and Telangana set to go to polls

Five states — Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Telangana — would go to the polls between the second week of November and the first week of December, the Election Commission announced on Saturday. The counting of votes will take place on December 11.

The Assembly elections will be a precursor to the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, and an indicator of the political temperature, at least in the Hindi belt, which is crucial for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Amit Shah-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has been the ruling party since 2003. Rajasthan, however, had never elected an incumbent government since 1993. 

In Telangana, the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Telangana Rashtra Samiti government had recommended early dissolution of the Assembly. Mizoram is one of three states, along with Punjab and Karnataka, where the Congress is still in power.

The elections come against the backdrop of farmers’ protests in the three northern states, and a demand by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad that the Narendra Modi government bring in an Ordinance for early construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The Congress, the principal opposition party in the three north Indian states, suffered a setback with the Bahujan Samaj Party deciding against an alliance in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. In Telangana, the Congress has struck an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party and the Communist Party of India.

Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases on November 12 for 18 seats and November 20 for the rest 72 seats. In 2013, the vote difference between the BJP and Congress was less than 1 per cent. In Madhya Pradesh (230 seats) and Mizoram, elections are to be held on November 28. In Rajasthan and Telangana, elections are on December 7.