Assembly poll dates released, to be held from November 7 to 30

Five states will have 1.77 lakh polling stations, of which 1.01 lakh will have webcasting facilities. Representation pic

Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram will go to the assembly polls between November 7 and 30, and the counting of votes will be on December 3, the Election Commission said on Monday, setting the stage for what is being seen as the semi-final between the BJP and opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Announcing the election schedule at a press conference here, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said single-phase assembly polls will be held in Madhya Pradesh on November 17, Rajasthan on November 23, Telangana on November 30 and Mizoram on November 7, while Chhattisgarh will go to the polls in two phases on November 7 (20 seats) and 17 (70 seats).

The BJP and the Congress will be engaged in a direct fight in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan while the two parties are also in contention for power in Telangana, where Bharat Rashtra Samithi is eyeing a third straight term.

BJP hopes to emerge as a big force in Telangana. Representation pic

In Mizoram, regional parties and the Congress will challenge the incumbent Mizo National Front amid the opposition party's hope that political polarisation on ethnic lines following violence in Manipur may help them.

However, it is the assembly polls in three Hindi-speaking states, a BJP stronghold in two consecutive Lok Sabha polls, besides Telangana, which are likely to have an outsize influence on national politics.

Despite losing to the Congress in the assembly contests, the BJP had swept the 2019 national elections in the three states.

The BJP has already named 79 candidates, for elections to the 230-member MP assembly, and 21 candidates for the 90-member Chhattisgarh polls, underlining its determined intent to get the better of the Congress which is fancying its chances after handing its rival a big defeat in Karnataka.

J-K polls will be held at the right time: EC

Chief EC Rajiv Kumar with ECs Anup Chandra Pandey, Arun Goel during a press conference. Pic/PTI

The EC on Monday said polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held at the "right time" keeping in mind the security situation.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said this while speaking at a press conference to announce the schedule for assembly elections in five states.

The polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held when the commission deems it the "right time" keeping in mind the security situation and other polls being held in the union territory, he said.

In response to another question, Kumar said announcements of freebies always have the ‘tadka' of populism and the public has the right to know from where the freebies will come.

Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram will go to polls on different days from November 7-30 and votes will be counted for the five states on December 3, the EC said.

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