Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh will go to polls on October 13 on a single phase election time table. This was announced by Chief Election Commisioner Mr.Naveen Chawla. The counting will take place on October 22. There is an unusual 9-day gap between the polling day and counting day.
This, Election Commision says is due to Diwali that comes right between on October 18. This is also the first elections after the General elections which took place last April-May where Congress party romped home with victory.Despite the ongoing controversy over Electronic Voting Machines, the same will be used for casting vote in all three states. Video cameras will be placed in sensitive polling booths. With this announcement the Model Code of Conduct has been activated.
There are 60 seats in Arunachal Pradesh, 90 seats in Haryana and 288 seats in Maharashtra assemblies respectively. There are 7.56 crore voters in Maharashtra and 1.20 crore voters in Haryana. EVMs will be used in all the three states.
Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana are expected to go Congress way mainly due to a strong party base and also a very weak opposition in BJP. Maharashtra will be the one to watch. The Congress-NCP combine are likely to go together against the 3o years of coalition combine of Shiv Sena and BJP. BJP is certainly on a sticky wicket due to internal party uproar and fights within the party high command. Also, the Raj Thackeray's MNS could play a spoiler and eat into the votes of BJP and Shiv Sena.
Congress, fresh from its victory at the centre is itching to take hold of the Maharashtra government for the third consecutive time. The main qusetion being whether they would contest alone in Maharashtra or contuinue with their combination with NCP which is headed by BCCI-president and Union Agricultural minister Sharad Pawar. Pawar had a very poor General elections winning only 9 seats in 48-seat Lok Sabha contest.
