The Election Commission on Saturday announced that the Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana will be held from November 12 to December 7. The results for all the five States will be declared on December 11.
The model code of conduct came into effect in four States — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan — immediately. The guidelines are already in place in Telangana, as directed by the Commission on September 27, following the premature dissolution of the Assembly.
Chhattisgarh goes to the polls first, with voting scheduled in two phases. The 18 Naxal-affected constituencies in the southern part of the State will go to the polls on November 12, while 72 other constituencies will be covered in the second phase on November 20, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O.P. Rawat said.
In Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram, the elections will be conducted on a single day — November 28. Finally, Rajasthan and Telangana will hold elections on December 7, also on a single day.
Teams from the Election Commission will visit Mizoram and Telangana within the next 15 days to review the preparedness.
The CEC refused to comment on allegations by the Congress that it had delayed the announcement of schedules due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public rally in Rajasthan earlier in the day.
“Politicians are political creatures and they have to see politics in everything, because of their political nature. We have to make no comments on that,” said Mr. Rawat. He said if someone thought that concessions had been made, they were free to complain.
Reasons for delay
Apologising to the media for the delay, Mr. Rawat cited several reasons. He said October 8 had earlier been fixed for publication of electoral rolls in Telangana. However, on Friday, the Hyderabad High Court directed the Commission to not to issue the list before it was shown to the Court.
The officials feeding data into the software used for updating the list were also facing issues with the Telugu transliteration. The EC held a meeting with C-DAC engineers who said it would take two-three days to resolve the problem.
Therefore, the Commission decided to publish the electoral rolls on October 12, after it was submitted to the High Court.
The EC also put off an announcement on the schedule of bypolls to two Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. Since an election petition pertaining to one of the constituencies was still pending in the Madras High Court, technically the vacancy had not arisen yet, the CEC said.
Besides, around 10.30 a.m. on Saturday, the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu had requested the EC on the phone to postpone the elections citing the weather forecast, and stating that the State administration might have to undertake relief works during the period. The Commission later received a letter from the Chief Secretary around 1 p.m. on the same issue, the CEC said.
Taking cognisance of these facts, the EC had to re-visit its earlier decisions, which led to the change in the timing of announcement of schedules from 12-30 p.m. to 3 p.m., said Mr. Rawat.
Bypolls to Karnataka’s Shimoga, Bellary and Mandya parliamentary constituencies; besides Ramanagaram and Jamkhandi assembly constituencies, will be held on November 3.