The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced the full schedule of upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. The poll body also announced the schedule for assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases -- Phase 1 (September 18), Phase 2 (September 25), and Phase 3 (October 1). Votes will be counted on October 4, 2024. Assembly polls in Haryana would be conducted in a single phase on October 1 and the counting of votes will take place on October 4.
The Election Commission, however, did not announce the dates for assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand in today's press conference. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said that assembly elections in Maharashtra will be announced later due to security requirements for conducting polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
Jammu & Kashmir assembly seats, voters
The ECI said that assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted across 90 assembly constituencies (74 general, 9 ST and &SC) after the delimitation exercise. A total of 87.09 lakh voters, around 44.46 lakh males and 42.62 lakh females, will exercise their right to franchise in these polls, as per CEC Rajiv Kumar.
Around 20.7 lakh are young voters aged between 20-29 and almost 3.71 lakh are first time voters aged between 18-19. Over 11,800 polling stations will be there in rural and urban areas of the Union Territory.
Of this, around 9,506 polling stations will be in rural areas whereas 2,332 in urban areas. Kumar said that there were zero instances of repolling in J&K during the Lok Sabha elections. He also said that the poll body hopes for increased participation by women and youth in polling.
Haryana assembly seats, voters
Furthermore, he said that Haryana has 90 constituencies in all, of which 73 are general and 17 are SC. The state has 2.01 crore electors, of which 95 lakh are female and 1.06 crore are male voters. The northern state has around 4.52 lakh first-time voters aged between 18-19 and 40.95 lakh young voters aged between 20-29.
Full schedule of upcoming assembly elections
| State | Key dates |
|
Jammu and Kashmir |
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| Haryana |
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Haryana 2019 assembly election results
Maharashtra: In Maharashtra, the BJP-led NDA achieved a majority to form the government but the then undivided Shiv Sena left the alliance due to internal conflict. The Shiv Sena forged a new alliance with the undivided Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar and the Congress called the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), with Uddhav Thackeray becoming the Chief Minister.
In 2022, Eknath Shinde along with 40 MLAs formed the state government with support from the BJP. In July 2023, the NCP faction supporting Ajit Pawar also joined the government. Hence, Eknath Shinde is the Chief Minister with Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar as his deputies.
Haryana: In 2019, the BJP was the biggest party in the state with 40 seats in its kitty. It was followed by the Congress at 31 seats and the Jannayak Janta Party at 10 seats whereas 7 Independents got elected to the assembly. One seat each was won by Haryana Lokhit Party and others.
Jharkhand: Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) was the biggest party in the state as it won 30 out of 81 assembly constituencies. It was followed by the BJP (25 seats), Congress (16 seats), Others (4 seats), JVM(P) (3 seats), AJSUP (2 seats), and RJD (1 seat).
First state elections in J&K since 2014
In Jammu and Kashmir, assembly elections were last held in 2014. The Union Territory has been functioning without a government since 2018. In 2019, the Modi government abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated the erstwhile state into 2 UTs-- Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Since then, the state is being ruled by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.