Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 9: The BJP-led NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc are set to play the semi-final in November when five states go to polls on different dates with the results of the elections scheduled to be declared on December 3.
The Election Commission of India on Monday announced the election schedules for Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana to go to polls from November 7 to 30 with counting of votes for all the five states to be taken up simultaneously on December 3.
While Naxalite-infested Chhattisgarh will be the only state to have two phased polling on November 7 and November 17, the remaining four states will have single phase polling, Mizoram on November 7, Madhya Pradesh on November 17, Rajasthan on November 23 and Telangana on November 30. The counting of votes in all the five states on December 3.
Approximately 16.1 crore people will cast their votes in this round of elections, which are widely seen as ‘semi-finals’ because they take place just months before the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Nearly 16 crore voters would be eligible to cast their votes in these elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference in New Delhi while asserting that strong measures were being put in place to make these polls inducement-free.
The CEC said the freebies announced by political parties and state governments have a ‘tadka’ of populism and it was difficult for those who win polls to either implement these sops or stop this practice. Responding to a question on freebies announced by various parties and government ahead of elections, he said while it was the domain of the state governments, they do not remember such sops for five years but announce them just a month or a fortnight before the poll schedule was announced.
He recalled that the EC had recently brought out a proforma for parties and states to explain how and when the promises made by them in their poll manifesto would be implemented. “Some announcement in one state and some other announcement in others. I don’t know why it is not remembered for five years and all the announcements are made in the last one month or 15 days. Anyway, that is the domain of the state governments,” he said.
Parties and state were asked about the debt to GDP ratio, interest payment to total revenue and whether they will breach the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) targets. The governments were also asked whether they will reduce some of the schemes to implement what has been promised in the manifesto, and whether there will be an extra burden of tax on the people.
“The intention behind it was to bring everything in public domain,” he said. Voters should know the picture which emerges on the basis of financial fundamentals, he said, adding there has to be a balance on present versus mortgaging the future generations.
“These announcements have a ‘tadka’ of populism. It is difficult to either implement or stop such (sops). Therefore, people have a right to know how these freebies will be implemented,” he said.
In none of the five states the BJP had won the elections in 2018 though it is the ruling party in MP where it came to power through the backdoor. The Congress had won the elections in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and is still hanging on to power while in Mizoram the Mizo National Front is in power and in Telangana the Bharat Rashtra Samithi of the chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is the ruling party.
The Congress claimed a hat-trick of victories in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in 2018, but couldn’t hold on to the latter after ex-leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and nearly two dozen lawmakers from the ruling party crossed to the BJP, leading to the fall of Kamal Nath’s government.
In the 230-member MP Assembly, the BJP and Congress finished almost neck-and-neck; the saffron party won 109 seats and the Congress 114 till Scindia-led desertion from the Congress and their subsequent victories in by-elections swayed the pendulum in favour of the BJP. Vote-share was split even more equally – 41 per cent each for the BJP and the Congress.
In Chhattisgarh the Congress won 68 seats while the BJP won just 15, with the former claiming 43 per cent of the vote-share. The Assembly has 90 seats and the majority mark is set at 46.
In 200-seat Rajasthan Assembly, (majority mark = 101), the Congress won 100 and the BJP 73 in the last election. The Congress finally formed the government, and Ashok Gehlot was installed as Chief Minister, after support from the Bahujan Samaj Party, which claimed six seats.
Telangana, the only southern state in this round of polls, has 119 seats. The majority mark is set at 60. The BRS had won a thumping majority in 2018 – it won 88 seats. The Congress was a distant second with 19 and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM was third with seven. The BJP won just one Assembly segment; T Raja Singh won the Goshamahal seat.
In Mizoram, the Mizo National Front swept the 2018 polls, winning 27 of the state’s 40 seats. The Congress won just four and the BJP one. The remaining were won by independent candidates.
After the announcement of the election dates, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray expressed confidence that the people of five states, where the assembly polls are scheduled next month, will vote for peace, prosperity and progress assured by the INDIA alliance.
“India, that is Bharat will not vote for those who create rifts and aim to change the constitution and damage our democracy and country. It will vote for peace, prosperity and progress assured by the INDIA alliance,” Aaditya Thackeray said in a post on X.
The Aam Aadmi Party is ready to contest the upcoming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan with full strength and the names of candidates will be declared soon, its national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Monday.
Asked about the AAP’s preparation for the polls, Kejriwal said, “We are prepared to contest the elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with full strength.” When asked whether his party will contest the elections as part of the INDIA bloc, he said that “whatever happens will be apprised.”
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi is once again ready to reinforce its commitment to Telangana, the party’s MLC and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha said. “Once again ready to reinforce our commitment to Telangana,” she posted a message on social media platform X.