Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand are likely to go to polls along with general elections in April-May this year.
NEW DELHI: The Assembly elections in three states—Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand—may be held along with the Lok Sabha elections in April-May this year.
While elections for the Assemblies in Maharashtra and Haryana are due in October this year, the same for Jharkhand are scheduled for December. All these three states are being ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
There is a feeling within the BJP leadership that there is considerable anti-incumbency against these state governments, which could be neutralized if the elections are held along with the general elections as the focus will be on national issues and performance of the Narendra Modi government.
“Moreover, since the election campaigning will be led by Modi himself, he will outshine the state level leadership, giving advantage to the BJP. There is a perception that the performance of Haryana Chief Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar and his Jharkhand counterpart Raghubar Das has not been up to the mark, whereas CM Devendra Fadnavis is facing a rogue partner (Shiv Sena) in Maharashtra. So if the Assembly elections are held in these states simultaneously with that of Lok Sabha, these factors will be washed away by the Modi wave,” said a BJP source. He said that the general mood, which has got lifted after tabling of a popular budget on Friday, may help the BJP in these states. “Every section of society will benefit from the new budgetary provisions—be it keeping people with Rs 5 lakh income out of tax net, Rs 6,000 to farmers or pension scheme for unorganised labourers,” he added.
If this happens, altogether seven states will go for Assembly elections alongside the Lok Sabha elections. Elections to the Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. Besides, there is also speculation that Jammu & Kashmir, which is now under President’s Rule, may also go for Assembly elections simultaneously.
Though Congress is opposed to the idea of simultaneous elections, sources said a big cross-section of party workers, too, want that the elections should be held together. “Everybody will get tired during the Lok Sabha elections and it will be difficult to prepare for Assembly elections soon after. Moreover, those candidates who lose in Lok Sabha polls, may try to contest Assembly polls and those who win, may start lobbying with the high command to give tickets to their near and dear ones in the Assembly polls. All this can be avoided if the elections are held together,” explained a Congress leader.
In case of Haryana, CM Khattar has already expressed his desire for simultaneous polls following BJP’s victory in the Jind byelection and the local body elections in which the party won all five mayoral posts. In Maharashtra, alliance partner Shiv Sena, too, wants simultaneous elections, though CM Fadnavis is not in favour of it. Sources said that in Jharkhand, an alliance between Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) has started taking a shape, which may pose a big challenge to the Raghubar Das government. It may be neutralised if the elections are held simultaneously.
This week, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and his team met political parties in Jharkhand to review preparations for the Lok Sabha elections. Arora, however, made it clear that the Election Commission was in the state only to review preparations for the Lok Sabha polls.
Congress, notably, has opposed the idea of holding both the elections together in Jharkhand. State party spokesperson Alok Dubey said: “There are many constituencies which are Maoist affected. Different divisions have different geography. Moreover, political parties are not prepared for Assembly elections. Therefore, we have conveyed to the CEC that there should not be simultaneous polls.”