Maharashtra, Haryana elections on October 21

RESULTS ON OCT 24 BJP, in power in both states, faces first test since LS win

NEWDELHI: Voters in Maharashtra and Haryana will choose new state assemblies on October 21 in the first electoral challenge faced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since it won a second straight term in power at the Centre in May under Prime Minister Narendra Modi .

Results of the elections will be declared on October 24, said the Election Commission, which unveiled the poll schedule in New Delhi on Saturday. Bypolls will also be held in 64 assembly constituencies across different states, and one Lok Sabha constituency, on October 21, chief election commissioner Sunil Arora told reporters.

Both states are ruled by the BJP, in an alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, where Devendra Fadnavis in 2014 became the first politician from the party to become chief minister; the BJP had been the junior partner to the Sena earlier. Both state governments have completed their full five-year terms in office. In Haryana, the BJP formed its first majority government in 2014 under CM Manohar Lal Khattar.

Fadnavis and Khattar will be the BJP’s public faces in the two states in the elections that also promise to be a test of resilience for the Congress after its electoral rout in the Lok Sabha polls and the ability of interim president Sonia Gandhi to breathe new life into the grand old party.

“The morale of the Congress is at an all-time low. The BJP will likely sail through in Haryana and in Maharashtra,” said Neelanjan Sircar, assistant professor at Ashoka University and visiting senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. “But how much of a fight will the Congress put up? In times like these, we need a credible and vociferous opposition to give voters a choice. These elections will tell us a lot about the health of democracy in India.”

Both national-level factors and specific state-level configurations and issues are expected to influence the outcome of elections . Having come to power with a bigger majority on its own in the Lok Sabha in the April-May general elections, the BJP goes into the state polls with a four-and-ahalf-month track record in its second term in which it has passed the triple talaq bill that criminalises the Muslim practice of instant divorce; and pushed through measures to end the special status of J&K and bifurcate it into two states -- J&K and Ladakh -- among others.

A slowdown that caused economic growth to decelerate to 5% in the quarter ended June has been a cause of concern.