Haryana, Maharashtra to vote on October 21; counting on October 24

These are the first elections being held after the Modi government returned to power

Sunil Arora ANI Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announcing the poll dates | AFP

The Election Commission has announced the dates for holding Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana. Chief Election Commission Sunil Arora informed the voting in both states will be held on a single day on October 21 and counting of votes will be held on October 24.

Voting will be held to all 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly; Haryana has a 90-member Assembly. Maharashtra has 8.49 crore voters while Haryana has 1.82 crore registered voters, the Election Commission said. The five-year term of the Legislative Assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra expires on November 2 and November 9.

The deadline for filing of nominations in Haryana and Maharashtra is October 4. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is October 7.

Arora informed mediapersons that candidates with criminal antecedents should have to publish details of these antecedents via newspapers and TV channels three times during the campaigning process. Arora informed candidates had an upper limit on expenditure of Rs 28 lakh.

These are the first elections being held after the Narendra Modi government returned to power in May. The polls are likely to be interpreted as a barometer of its popularity, following its decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and also the ongoing economic slowdown. In addition, the BJP has been ruling in both Maharashtra and Haryana, after it won elections in both states on its own for the first time in 2014.

In Maharashtra, the BJP and its ally, the Shiv Sena, had already started campaigning for the election. Modi had addressed a rally in Nashik on Thursday. A number of leaders, including former ministers and MPs, of the opposition Congress and NCP have crossed over to the BJP and Shiv Sena in recent months.

Assembly polls for the Jharkhand are expected to be announced at a later date. Jharkhand has a 82-member Assembly, of which 81 are elected MLAs.