The Election Commission of India on Friday declared Assembly polls for Himachal Pradesh on November 12 and counting on December 8. The schedule for Gujarat, where too elections are due this year, was not announced on Friday.
In 2017, the proclamations for the two states were made almost a fortnight apart, but the votes were counted on the same day — December 18.
Back then, the EC had said that a prolonged period under the model code of conduct would hamper flood relief in Gujarat. Then chief election commissioner Achal Kumar Joti had added: “The Gujarat poll schedules are not (being) announced right now due to the existing rules on time limit (46 days between the declaration of elections and polling day) for holding elections. But it will take place before December 18 to ensure that the Himachal Pradesh election results do not impact the Gujarat elections.”
Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar told reporters on Friday: “The EC actually goes by convention to announce the schedule of elections…. In Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam, there was a gap of 15 days (the terms of the Assemblies of the three states ended within a window of two weeks). In these elections there is a gap of 40 days (between the expiry dates of the Assemblies of Gujarat and Himachal)…. In the case of HP, the weather is a very big factor.”
Yet, although the gap between the expiry dates of the Goa and Uttar Pradesh Assemblies was 60 days, elections in the two states were declared on the same day — January 8 this year — along with Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand.
A senior EC source explained: “Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab are contiguous. So, we have to hold their polls on the same day to rule out the possibility of someone voting in more than one state. The terms of the Uttarakhand and Punjab Assemblies ended in March, like those of Goa and Manipur. Hence, they were clubbed. Himachal and Gujarat could have been announced together later, but we have to hold the Himachal polls earlier as it snows there.”
The source added: “While we have followed the convention of what was done last time, we have reduced the time period of the model code of conduct (MCC) as well as the gap between polling and counting. The MCC period has been reduced from 70 days in 2017 to 57 days now. In 2012, the MCC period was 81 days. The wait for results is a fortnight less than the 2017 elections.”
In 2017, the Congress had criticised the Election Commission for only announcing the Himachal schedule on October 12 that year, claiming that a window had been created for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Gujarat on October 16 and make announcements, which he could not have done had the MCC come into force.
This year, Modi is scheduled to visit Gandhinagar on October 18 for the Defexpo.
The last date for filing nominations for the elections to the 68-member Assembly in BJP-ruled Himachal is October 25. To increase the turnout, the poll panel is appointing nodal officers for organisations with more than 500 employees and has asked senior polling officials to visit booths with traditionally low turnouts and suggest remedies. Social media teams are being set up in constituencies to instantly quash online rumours.
Asked if he would take a tougher stand than his predecessors did on hate speech by politicians, Kumar replied: “Please be sure of it.”
