Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Three states will go into Assembly election on October 13 this year after either their term expired or the legislative bodies were dissolved by the government there.
The counting of votes will take place on October 22 in
all the three states which are ruled by Congress which shares
power in Maharashtra with NCP as a major coalition partner.
Filing of nomination will begin on September 18 and the last day of withdrawing nomination is Sept 25, Chief Election Commmissioner Navin Chawla announced in a press conference here. He was accompanied by the other two Election Commissioners SY Quraishi and VS Sampath.
Chawla said the date of polling was decided after studying climatic conditions, academic schedules, festivals, law and order condition and availability of central police forces.
Maharashtra: The EC announced a total of 82028 polling stations will be used for around 7.5cr voters in the state. Maharashtra Assembly has 288 seats and completes the current term on Oct 24.
Haryana: The Congress’ Bhuinder Hooda government dissolved the Assembly on August 21, nearly six months before the expiry of its term. The term of the present assembly and the government was to end in March 2010. Haryana Assembly has 90 seats. Around 13000 polling stations will be pressed into service for over 1.20cr voters.
Arunachal PradeshThe state has 60 seats and completes its term on Nov 3. Number of polling stations in the state are 2061.
The Oct 13 contest will be the first electoral battle in India since the Congress retained power in the Lok Sabha elections of April-May
The Commission also announced that special instructions have been passed on for facilitating conditions for physically challenged voters. Despite the ongoing controversy over Electronic Voting Machines, the same will be used for casting vote in all three states.
CEC Chawla
dismissed all doubts about their functioning. "They are
functioning properly and we have no doubts from our side."
Video cameras will be placed in sensitive polling booths. Chawla said: "The model code of conduct comes into effect immediately. All the provisions of the model code will apply to the whole of the states and will be applicable to all candidates, political parties, the state and the central governments."
He warned candidates and political parties against using religion to woo voters.
"There shall be no appeal (on) caste or communal (lines). Mosques, churches, temples or other places of worship will not be used for election propaganda," he said.
Chawla said that central police forces and state armed police drawn from other states would be deployed during the polling along with observers for the smooth conduct of elections.
First Published: Tuesday, September 01, 2009, 00:32