The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced the schedule for Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh but shared no plans for Gujarat, another state where polls are due later this year.
The announcement for elections in the western coastal state will be made later, said chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar.
The Election Commission offered two explanations for not announcing the polls for Gujarat along with Gujarat, with the first one being the weather conditions in the hill state.
“Weather is an important factor in Himachal Pradesh. Holding elections in winter won’t be possible because of the inclement weather in large parts of the state,” said CEC Kumar.
The commission further said that the Gujarat Assembly term will expire in February next year, while the tenure of the present Himachal Pradesh Assembly will expire a month before – on January 8.
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The last Assembly election in Gujarat was won by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) which bagged 99 seats in the 182-member Legislative Assembly. Congress party had emerged victorious in 77 Assembly segments.
Elections in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have long been a contest between two parties – BJP and Congress. The Grand Old Party’s performance in 2017 was the best in the last few elections since Modi took over the reins of the state as the chief minister.
This equation, however, seems to be changing with the emergence of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as the third major challenger to the BJP’s election-winning machine.
Since the party won some seats in the Surat municipal corporation elections, its senior leaders, including Kejriwal himself, have held several roadshows and rallies in different parts of Gujarat. AAP’s public meetings have been attracting a decent crowd though political observers continue to shrug off any series threat to the BJP from its rise.
On the other hand, the strength of the Congress party has deteriorated in the state – primarily due to infightings and the demise of strategist Ahmad Patel.
In Himachal Pradesh, elections are scheduled to take place on November 12 and the votes will be counted on December 8, the ECI has announced.