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Maharashtra, Haryana Assembly Elections on October 21, counting and results on October 24

The two states will be the first to go to assembly polls following the Lok Sabha elections this year

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Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on Saturday in a press conference scheduled at 12 noon, announced the dates for the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra. Date of poll for both the states is October 21. The counting will be done on October 24. The two states will have a single-phased election.

Addressing reporters in New Delhi, Sunil Arora said that September 27 will be the issue of notification, last date of nomination will be on October 4, Scrutiny on October 5, and the last date for withdrawal of application is October 7.

The two states will be the first to go to assembly polls following the Lok Sabha elections this year, thereby providing a clear picture of the current political electoral scenario post-2019 Lok Sabha Election.

The Election Commission (EC) announcement said that the 5-year term of the Legislative Assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra expires on November 2 and on November 9 respectively. The Chief added by saying that in every new election there are 'new insights and learnings for the future'.

The by-poll schedule for the different states has also been announced. By-elections for the 64 assembly seats in different states will also go on poll on October 21 and counting will be done on October 24. The states are Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, MP, Meghalaya, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.

Coming to the Assembly elections, Haryana has 1.82 crore registered voters and Maharashtra has 8.94 crore voters, said the EC chief, adding that special security arrangements will be made for Left-wing extremism (LWE) affected areas in the Red corridor of Gadchiroli and Gondia in Maharashtra. Arora said that the decision was taken after consulting with the nodal officers, DSPs, Commissioners of Police as well as central and state enforcement agencies.

In a statement that ought to be highlighted, the EC chief said that election campaigns often impose an environmental cost. He, on part of the Election Commission, appealed to political parties to avoid the use of plastic and instead use only environment-friendly material in their campaigns. He said that there is a Rs 28 lakh-cap on poll expense on each candidate and reassured all stakeholders about the quality of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).

Haryana is currently led by Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar, whose term of the current BJP-led state assembly will expire on November 2, 2019. There are 90 seats in the Haryana Legislative Assembly, of which a party would need to win 45 for a majority.

The last general election to elect members of the assembly was held on October 15, 2014, where the BJP won 47 seats to claim a majority in the Assembly, forming the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), led by ex-Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala had come second, winning 19 seats, while the Congress, led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, trailed behind with 15 seats.

In Maharashtra, the current BJP-led government is led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He is the BJP's CM candidate again and had earlier organised a Maha Janadesh Yatra to cover about 160 of the total 288 assembly constituencies. On the other hand, BJP's ally Shiv Sena's youth leader and Chief Ministerial nominee Aaditya Thackeray had, too, launched a Jan Aashirwad Yatra in a bid to increase party's presence across the state.

The other parties contesting the election are the opposing Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) who had earlier announced 125-seat each contesting agreement. It is widely predicted that the BJP-led government will come back to power in Maharashtra. In 2014, the BJP had won 122 seats, while the Shiv Sena had claimed 63 seats to themselves. The rest went to Congress (42), NCP (41) and others (20).

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