New Delhi: The Election Commission has explained why the Gujarat Assembly election date was not announced today.
The term of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly ends on January 8 next year and that of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly on February 18 next year. The election rule states that there is a maximum period of 6 months before the end of the term of office. In that sense, the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly and the Gujarat Legislative Assembly are aligned to hold it simultaneously.
With the news that the Chief Election Commissioner is set to meet the media this evening, it was expected that the election schedule for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assemblies would be released today. However, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, who released the Himachal Pradesh election schedule, said that the Gujarat Assembly election schedule would be released later.
Asked by reporters why the Gujarat Assembly election schedule was not published, he said that the Election Commission has acted within the rules.
The Chief Election Commissioner said that if two states are going to hold separate elections in succession, then the next election should be held 30 days after the election of one state.
In that regard, Rajiv Kumar said that as the term of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly ends 40 days after the date of expiry of the term of the Himachal Pradesh State Assembly, there is no legal error in holding the two state assembly elections separately.
As far as Himachal Pradesh is concerned, the Chief Election Commissioner said that the election schedule has been prepared keeping in mind the weather conditions of the state and the period in which elections are usually held there.
Stating that the Election Commission did not want the election process to be too long, Rajiv Kumar said that if the elections of the two states were to be combined, the election process would have been too long, so it has been avoided.
Rajiv Kumar informed that since elections are being conducted separately for Himachal Pradesh, the period of validity of the rules of conduct of elections has been reduced to 57 days.
BJP is the ruling party in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. A poll conducted by ABP News – C Otter in Himachal Pradesh was released recently. It said that the BJP will get 46.80% of the votes, the Congress will get 32.30% of the votes and the Aam Aadmi Party will get 17.40% of the votes.
If the BJP wins again in Himachal Pradesh and forms the government, it will have an impact on the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections. In that sense, political observers feel that separate elections may be beneficial for the BJP.