Election Commission to announce assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra next week, Election Update 2014, Latest Election news 2014, Latest Political News 2014
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- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 21:02
EC to announce assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra next week
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission is set to announce assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and possibly Jharkhand next week, with polling likely to be scheduled in October. However, the Commission is discussing separate polls in Jammu & Kashmir in November-December.
The Commission has already wound up consultations with the Union home ministry on force deployment. The ministry has agreed to concede EC's demand for around 60,000 Central para-military troops to stand guard over polls across the four states.
Though Haryana is likely to have a single phase poll, Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections may be staggered. The Naxal-hit districts in the latter two states may go to polls in the initial phase to enable area domination ahead of the election and maximum force coverage on polling day.
The poll time-table for Haryana and Maharashtra is being worked out between Dussehra, which falls on October 3, and Diwali on October 23. The Commission is contemplating finishing the counting before October 20, leaving at least a week for government formation in Haryana.
While the terms of the Haryana and Maharashtra assemblies are expiring on October 27 and November 8 respectively, the terms of J&K and Jharkhand are ending only in January. However, with J&K assembly poll seen as "difficult" given the state of militancy in Kashmir as well as the recent escalation in border firing from across Pakistan, the EC does not consider it feasible to hold the exercise simultaneously with other states.
In fact, even the poll in Jharkhand, where the term of the state assembly expires on January 3, may be brought forward to October and clubbed with Haryana and Maharashtra elections. This is expected to ensure a focused, standalone poll in J&K. The J&K assembly election is expected to stretch over multiple phases in November-December.
src:economictimes