Polls in Three states May be held with ls 2019
Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand are likely to go to polls along with general elections in April-may this year.
The Assembly elections in three states— Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand—may be held along with the Lok Sabha elections in April-may this year.
While elections for the Assemblies in Maharashtra and Haryana are due in October this year, the same for Jharkhand are scheduled for December. All these three states are being ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
There is a feeling within the BJP leadership that there is considerable antiincumbency against these state governments, which could be neutralized if the elections are held along with the general elections as the focus will be on national issues and performance of the Narendra Modi government.
“Moreover, since the election campaigning will be led by Modi himself, he will outshine the state level leadership, giving advantage to the BJP. There is a perception that the performance of Haryana Chief Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar and his Jharkhand counterpart Raghubar Das has not been up to the mark, whereas CM Devendra Fadnavis is facing a rogue partner (Shiv Sena) in Maharashtra. So if the Assembly elections are held in these states simultaneously with that of Lok Sabha, these factors will be washed away by the Modi wave,” said a BJP source. He said that the general mood, which has got lifted after tabling of a popular budget on Friday, may help the BJP in these states. “Every section of society will benefit from the new budgetary provisions—be it keeping people with Rs 5 lakh income out of tax net, Rs 6,000 to farmers or pension scheme for unorganised labourers,” he added.
If this happens, altogether seven states will go for Assembly elections alongside the Lok Sabha elections. Elections to the Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. Besides, there is also speculation that Jammu & Kashmir, which is now under President’s Rule, may also go for Assembly elections simultaneously.
Though Congress is opposed to the idea of simultaneous elections, sources said a big cross-section of party workers, too, want that the elections should be held together. “Everybody will get tired during the Lok Sabha elections and it will be difficult to prepare for Assembly elections soon after. Moreover, those candidates who lose in Lok Sabha polls, may try to contest Assembly polls and those who win, may start lobbying with the high command to give tickets to their near and dear ones in the Assembly polls. All this can be avoided if the elections are held together,” explained a Congress leader.
In case of Haryana, CM Khattar has already expressed his desire for simultaneous polls following BJP’S victory in the Jind byelection and the local body elections in which the party won all five mayoral posts. In Maharashtra, alliance partner Shiv Sena, too, wants simultaneous elections, though CM Fadnavis is not in favour of it. Sources said that in Jharkhand, an alliance between Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha ( JVM) has started taking a shape, which may pose a big
citing health reasons, there is some pressure on her to contest from Bhopal. One reason for this is that the Narendra Modi government needs to retain as many seats as it can and at least try and come close to its earlier mandate. In fact, party sources say that the hitherto ignored Margdarshak Mandal, too, will be encouraged to contest—this includes both Murli Manohar Joshi and L.K. Advani, as both veterans enjoy a certain amount of goodwill in their constituencies. One is not quite sure whether Advani will oblige, but Joshi seems keen to fight the polls. Another rethink being done by the Modi-shah duo is the decision to field the old candidates once again. Earlier they were toying with the idea of beating the anti-incumbency by fielding new candidates, but now it seems that—especially after this decision backfired badly in the Madhya Pradesh elections—it makes sense to repeat the incumbent MPS. And try and avoid the BJP vote being split by the same MPS contesting as “rebels”. challenge to the Raghubar Das government. It may be neutralised if the elections are held simultaneously.
This week, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and his team met political parties in Jharkhand to review preparations for the Lok Sabha elections. Arora, however, made it clear that the Election Commission was in the state only to review preparations for the Lok Sabha polls.
Congress, notably, has opposed the idea of holding both the elections together in Jharkhand. State party spokesperson Alok Dubey said: “There are many constituencies which are Maoist affected. Different divisions have different geography. Moreover, political parties are not prepared for Assembly elections. Therefore, we have conveyed to the CEC that there should not be simultaneous polls.”