New Delhi: With the Election Commission (EC) announcing poll dates of all five states on Saturday, all the talk about clubbing of Assembly elections with the Lok Sabha polls was made redundant in a single stroke. While announcing the schedule for elections of five states, which are set to be a litmus test for the BJP-ruled Government at the Centre, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat said that there will be a single-phase election in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram while polling will be held in two phases in Chhattisgarh starting from November 12.
In Chhattisgarh, out of a total of 90 Assembly constituencies, 18 seats (mostly in Maoist-hit areas) will go to the polls in the first phase on November 12 while 72 seats will go to polls on November 20. The other states that will to polls in November are Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram — both on November 28 —while Rajasthan and Telangana too will have a single phase election on December 7. There are 230 Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, 40 seats in Mizoram, 119 in Telangana and 200 in Rajasthan.
Out of the five states going to the polls, three states (Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) are BJP-ruled heartland states while one is Congress-ruled (Mizoram) and the last one is southern state Telangana. In Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has ruled for three straight terms and the results of these two states would be crucial in deciding the party's fate in next year's LS polls.
"With the announcement of poll dates, the Model Code Of Conduct too has come into effect in four states. The model code was already in place in Telangana soon after the Assembly was dissolved in early September," said Rawat.
Earlier in the day, the Congress alleged that the CEC's Press conference was delayed to "allow" PM Modi to make a number of announcements at his rally in Ajmer before the model code comes into play. Dismissing the Congress charges, Rawat said, "They are politicians… they have to politicise everything."