Mumbai: Two Indian states will go to the polls in October, the election commissioner said on Saturday, in a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity after he won a clear mandate in a general election in May.
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Voting in the northern state of Haryana and western state of Maharashtra, home to the financial hub of Mumbai, will be on October 21, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said.
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Votes will be counted on October 24, he said.
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Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power in both of the states.
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The party won all of the seats in Haryana in the May general election.
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In Maharashtra, an alliance between the BJP and the regional Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party won more than 85 per cent of the seats.
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The main opposition Congress party has been struggling to hold its support in the two states after senior party officials in both of them joined the BJP in recent months.
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Election schedule
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Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said the notification for the elections will be issued on September 27. “Last date for filing nomination is October 4, while the scrutiny of the nomination papers will be done on October 5,” he said.
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The CEC said that the last day for withdrawing nominations is October 7.
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Arora also said that the tenure of the Haryana legislative assembly will expire on November 2, while that of Maharashtra will end on November 9.
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In the 2014 Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the BJP had won 122 seats, its ally Shiv Sena 63 seats, the Congress 42 seats, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 41 seats while others managed 20.
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The Congress and the NCP had contested the 2014 Assembly polls separately after sharing power for 15 years in the state.
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In the 2014 Assembly polls in Haryana, the BJP won 47 seats followed by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) at 19 while the ruling Congress managed just 15 seats. Two seats went to the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), and one each to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Five Independents were also elected.
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In numbers
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288: members in Maharashtra assembly
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90: members in Haryana assembly
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October 24: Results will be declared
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