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ECI to announce Gujarat assembly election schedule today
Opposition parties last month questioned the rationale behind ECI’s move of not announcing elections in Gujarat along with Himachal Pradesh
The Election Commission of India (ECI) will announce the Gujarat assembly election schedule at 12 noon on Thursday weeks after it announced polls to the 68-seat Himachal Pradesh House will be held on November 12.
Opposition parties questioned the rationale behind ECI’s move of not announcing elections in Gujarat along with Himachal Pradesh on October 15. They alleged it was done to help the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announce more pre-election sops.
In 2017, the Gujarat polls were announced within two weeks of the Himachal election dates. The counting of votes coincided for both states on December 18.
This year, the ECI simultaneously announced polls in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Punjab, and Uttarakhand. The gap between the lapsing of the Goa and Uttar Pradesh assemblies was 60 days, yet the polls were clubbed.
The Congress hit out at ECI last month alleging that it was allowing the government an unfair advantage. “... this has been done to give more time to the PM [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] to make some mega promises & carry out more inaugurations. Not at all surprising,” Congress’s Jairam Ramesh tweeted.
Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said no rules were violated in not announcing poll dates for Gujarat along with Himachal. “There is a gap of 40 days between the end of the assemblies of the two states [Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat]. According to the rules, it should be at least 30 days so that one result does not impact the other,” Kumar said at the media briefing to announce the elections for Himachal. The BJP is in power in both states.
Kumar said factors like the weather were among the reasons for announcing poll dates separately. “We want to hold the Himachal elections before the onset of snow.”
