Rajasthan assembly election dates announced, voting on December 7, result on December 11

The polls for the 200-seat Rajasthan assembly will be held in a single phase.

Rajasthan will go to polls on December 7 and the results of the Assembly elections will be announced on December 11, the Election Commission announced on Saturday. The polls for the 200-seat assembly will be held in a single phase. The term of the Rajasthan Assembly is ending on January 5, 2019. Election Commissioner OP Rawat said that the entire poll procedure will end by December 15. 

Apart from Rajasthan, elections were also announced for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana. In Chhattisgarh, voting will be held in two phases on 12 and 20 November. Voting in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held on 28 November while voting in Telangana will be held along with Rajasthan on December 7. 

While the Bharatiya Janata Party is desperately trying to keep in the state in its kitty, the Congress is leaving no stone unturned to hit out at Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia and list out her alleged failures in the last five years of her tenure in the state.

In 2013, the BJP had won the 200-seat Assembly by a massive margin. The saffron party had bagged 163 seats, while the Congress was way behind with merely 21 seats in its pocket. The Bahujan Samaj Party had won three seats, National People’s Party and National Unionist Zamindara Party won four and two seats respectively while the Independents bagged seven seats.

Gaining a foothold in the state is key for the BJP ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019. The importance that the state holds for the BJP can be judged by how Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah are steering the poll campaign in the state.

On the other hand, Congress led by party president Rahul Gandhi has launched a no-bars attack on the BJP by countering their development claims. Congress has also been hinting at a rift within the BJP claiming that Amit Shah and Vasundhara Raje are not sharing the dais in the poll related events in the state.