Bihar assembly poll dates may be announced in October

PATNA: Contrary to expectations, Election Commission (EC) may announce the state assembly election schedule in October and may also reduce the number of phases.
“Making the poll schedule announcement is in the EC domain. They can choose the dates as per their own understanding,” state BJP spokesman Prem Ranjan Patel said.
“We are ready as and when the poll schedule is announced. However, at the meeting with the state chief electoral officer here, the opposition parties had demanded to keep the election schedule in two to three phases only. The BJP, however, had asked for one-phase poll in the state,” Patel said.
Even state CPI secretary Ram Naresh Pandey said all the Left and non-Left parties in the opposition wanted short election procedure.
Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo) on Monday also indicated that the poll schedule may be announced in October. Without mentioning the EC, he said PM Narendra Modi will make announcements regarding the proposed and completed projects worth Rs294 crore pertaining to various departments from September 10 to 25.
Any new announcement either by the PM with regard to Bihar or by CM Nitish Kumar would not be possible once the EC declares the poll schedule before September 25, as the model code of conduct would immediately come into force.
If the EC chooses to announce the poll schedule in October, it will give cushion to the PM or CM and also curtail the number of phases to two or three, observers felt.
Otherwise, the EC is expected to announce the election schedule in September. During the 2015 election, the EC had announced the five-phase poll schedule on September 9.