The assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh will be held on November 12 while the counting of votes will take place on December 8. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Friday announced the schedule for Himachal Pradesh where 68 assembly seats are at stake.
However, CEC Kumar did not announce the poll schedule for much anticipated Gujarat Assembly polls and said that there was no technical violation of any rule. According to the poll panel, the term of Himachal Pradesh assembly will end on January 8 next year, while that of the Gujarat Assembly ends on February 18.
“There is a gap of 40 days between the term of the assemblies of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. According to the rules, it should be at least 30 days so that one result doesn’t impact the other,” said Kumar.
“There are a number of factors, like weather. We want to hold Himachal Pradesh assembly polls before the onset of snow,” CEC Kumar said, adding that the poll panel had held consultations with ‘various stakeholders’ before finalizing the poll schedule.
The Model Code of Conduct will apply to the hill state for a fewer number of days that is 57 days instead of 70 days, Kumar said, adding that the counting of votes will take place on December 8.
The notification for the poll for Himachal Pradesh, which is likely to see a triangular contest among BJP, Congress and AAP, will be issued on October 17 while the last date for the filing of nominations is October 25. The scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on October 27. The last date for the withdrawal of nomination is October 29.
There are a total 55,07,261 voters in Himachal Pradesh including 27,80,208 male voters and 27,27,016 female voters.
The last Assembly polls in the hill state was held on November 9, 2017 in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defeated the Congress party by winning 44 seats while the Congress party secured only 21 seats.
At present, the BJP has 45 MLAs in the state assembly, while the Congress has 22 MLAs and CPM has one MLA.