Election Commission of India has announced the dates of much-awaited state elections. According to the Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora, Maharashtra and Haryana state will go to the polls on October 21. The counting of votes will take place on October 24. The elections will be held in a single phase.
#WATCH Election Commision briefs media on Maharashtra & Haryana state Assembly elections https://t.co/dNLVpeI2aw
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2019
While announcing the dates of upcoming elections, Sunil Arora also urged the political parties to reduce the plastic use. He said that the election campaigns carry huge environmental costs and therefore political parties should use environment-friendly products.
Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora: Election campaigns impose an environmental cost upon us. We appeal to political parties to avoid use of plastic and use only environment-friendly material in their campaigns. pic.twitter.com/7WRThs4K6P
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2019
Chief Election Commissioner also announced to install special security measures for the Left-wing extremism affected areas in Maharashtra. Gadchiroli and Gondia are the LWE affected regions in the state.
Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora: Special security arrangements will be made for LWE affected areas in Gadchiroli and Gondia in #Maharashtra. pic.twitter.com/e5pp60elke
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2019
Maharashtra will go to the polls for its 288 assembly seats while Haryana will contest for a total of 90 seats. According to the stats provided by the election watchdog, Haryana has a total of 1.82 crore voters while 8.94 crore voters will participate in the Maharashtra elections.
The five-year term of the Legislative Assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra is set to expire on 2nd November and 9th November respectively. Filing of nominations for both state’s polls will begin from September 27 to October 4.
Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora: Haryana has 1.82 crore registered voters and Maharashtra has 8.94 crore voters. https://t.co/mgNg95qp96 pic.twitter.com/s42WmB9PBF
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2019
On the sideline of the meeting, details of upcoming by-polls were also announced. By-polls are slated to be held in 64 seats — Arunachal Pradesh (1), Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (1), Gujarat (4), Himachal Pradesh (2), Karnataka (15), Kerala (5), Madhya Pradesh (1), Meghalaya (1), Odisha (1), Puducherry (1), Punjab (4), Rajasthan (2), Sikkim (3), Tamil Nadu (2), Telangana (1) and Uttar Pradesh (11).
2014 Haryana Elections-
Haryana state saw the polls for its 90 assembly seats on October 15, 2014. BJP won 47 seats with a total share of 33.2 percent. Saffron part emerged victoriously. Manohar Lal Khattar secured an easy win with the support of other parties.
2014 Maharashtra Elections-
The assembly elections in Maharashtra were held on 15 October 2014, in a single phase. The result was announced on 19 October. Bhartiya Janta party secured the power in the state. BJP had won 122 seats in total, while Shiv Sena could only secure 63 seats. Devendra Fadnavis was made the Chief Minister.
Though there were talks of BJP-Shiv Sena alliance going on, but the grouping ended due to the failure of agreement over the seat-sharing formula.
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