Assembly polls to be held on October 21 in two states

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora flanked by Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa (L) and Sunil Chandra during a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday. Pic/PTI

New Delhi: Single-phase Assembly elections will be held in Maharashtra and Haryana on October 21 and the counting of votes will be taken up on October 24, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora announced on Saturday. The term of the 90-member Haryana Assembly ends on November 2. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to take on the Congress-led Opposition to retain power in both the states.

Notifications for the Assembly elections will be issued on September 27 and the nomination process will begin on the same day. The last day for filing nominations is October 4 and the nomination papers will be scrutinised on October 5. Arora, accompanied by Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, said October 7 would be the last date for candidates to withdraw from the electoral battle. Welcoming the announcement, BJP president Amit Shah urged voters to cast their ballots for a "strong government".

He also urged the BJP workers to highlight the achievements of the ruling governments, which had taken the states to "new heights of development and good governance." The Assembly elections are the first after Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to power at the Centre for a second term in May. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar exuded confidence. "The BJP is strong on all the 90 Assembly seats in the state. Opposition political parties are divided and a stampede is taking place in these parties. We will cross the 75-plus seats in the state Assembly, I am confident about it," Khattar told the media on Saturday. In Haryana, 19,425 polling stations will be set up for nearly 1.83 crore voters.

'Cong will win all'

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday said the Congress would easily win bypolls to all the four Assembly seats in the state. Talking informally with mediapersons after inaugurating a two-day Pashupaalan Mela in Punjab, Singh said the party was fully geared to contest the upcoming by-elections on the back of the government's progressive and welfare programmes and schemes. "The people of the state would once again put their seal of electoral approval on the Congress, which had proved through its past two and a half years of governance that it was the only party equipped to ensure the development of Punjab," he said.

75
No. of seats in the Assembly BJP hopes to win

19k
No. of polling stations in Haryana

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