Five states go to polls at year-end in test for Modi

COUNTING OF VOTES WILL TAKE PLACE ON DECEMBER 11 FOR ALL STATES

Poll dates were announced for five Indian states by the election commission yesterday, opening a long election season that will present Prime Minister Narendra Modi a regional test ahead of his national reelection bid in 2019.

Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules three of the five poll-bound heartland states — western Rajasthan, central Madhya Pradesh and eastern Chhattisgarh.

BJP’s performance in these states, part of India’s bellwether Hindi speaking heartland, will reflect both on Modi’s personal popularity and the state of the main, Nehru-Gandhi dynasty led opposition Congress party before 2019.

The BJP hopes to wrest power in northeastern Mizoram, one of only two states directly ruled by the Congress, and will challenge a popular regional party in southern Telangana state.

India’s chief election commissioner O.P. Rawat announced a single phase election in all states except Chhattisgarh.

“Rajasthan and Telangana will vote on December 7, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram on November 28 and Chhattisgarh on November 12 and November 20,” Rawat told journalists in New Delhi. The results for all five states will be declared on December 11.

Five states will go to the polls later this year, the country’s election commissioner said yesterday, in a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity ahead of his re-election bid in May 2019.

The state elections come at a time when the government is on the back foot with fuel prices surging, the rupee weakening and the stock market in a tailspin. High fuel prices and the rising cost of fertilisers are also hurting Indian farmers, who voted overwhelmingly for Modi in 2014. A fall in rural incomes also risks damaging that support next year.

Voting in the central state of Chattisgarh will be held in two phases, on November 12 and 20.

Code of conduct

Madhya Pradesh state in Central India and Mizoram in the country’s north-east will go to the polls on November 28. Voting in the western state of Rajasthan and the southern state of Telangana will be on December 7.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which Modi belongs to, is in power in three of the five states.

Modi said in a tweet yesterday the BJP has been running successful governments that have enhanced prosperity and inclusive growth in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

“I urge the people of these states to bless BJP once again so that we can work tirelessly to build a New India,” he said, while also urging voters in Mizoram and Telangana to back his party.

Counting of votes in all the states will be done on December 11, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat said announcing the schedule at a press conference here.

The BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for three consecutive terms while in Rajasthan power alternates between the two parties every election.

The Model Code of Conduct comes into force with immediate effect in four states while in Telangana it was already in force.

Notification for the first phase will be issued on October 16 and the last date for nominations would be October 23. Scrutiny will take place next day and the last date for the withdrawal of the nominations will be October 26.

While the term of the Assembly in Madhya Pradesh expires on January 7, the tenure of 40-member Assembly in Mizoram expires on December 15.