The Election Commission on Monday announced the dates for assembly elections in five states namely Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana and Mizoram. The poll process in these states will start on 7 November and conclude on 3 December.
Chhattisgarh will see polling in two phases on 7 November and 17 November. While Chhattisgarh will see polling for 20 eats in the first phase, the remaining 70 seats go to polls on 17 November.
The voting for all 40 seats of Mizoram will take place on 7 November, the same as the first phase of polling in Chhattisgarh.
The voting for all 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh will take place in a single phase on 17 November, the same day as the second phase of polling in Chhattisgarh.
Rajasthan’s 200-seat assembly will go for polls on 23 November, while the voting all 119 seats in Telangana will take place on 30 November.
The counting of votes for all five states will take place on 3 December.
The dates for the assembly polls in five states were announced by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Monday.
Assembly elections in these five states assume significance given that they take place just before next year’s Lok Sabha elections when Narendra Modi will be trying to return to power for the third time in a row.
Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have had Congress governments since 2018, while While Madhya Pradesh is ruled by BJP even though the Congress had won the last assembly polls. The Congress government headed by Kamal Nath had fallen after Jyotiraditya Scindia rebelled against his party and joined the BJP.
Telangana is governed by Telangana Rashtra Samith, while Mizo National Front (MNF) is in power in Mizoram.
The Chief Election Commissioner said that 16 crore voters will be exercising their right to vote in the upcoming polls. Of them, more than 60 lakh were first-time voters.
Political parties have been quick to announce their candidates for the upcoming elections.