Election Commission announces Assembly poll dates for Haryana and Jammu Kashmir:

On Friday, the Election commission of India(ECI) announced the schedule for assembly polls scheduled for Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir. The announcement came by the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with two other election commissioners at a press conference.

Haryana Legislative Polls:

The Poll panel on Friday, announced the schedule for the Haryana Legislative Polls. The announcement comes in even as the Haryana assembly term ends on 3^rd November. The elections in the poll bound state will be held on 1^st October and the results will be declared on 4^th October. The polls will be held in a single phase in 90 seats.

Haryana Polls 2019:

In 2019, Haryana went to polls on 21^st October in a single phase in 90 seats. The results led to a hung assembly as no party crossed the majority mark. The Bhartiya Janata Party won 40 seats, Indian National Congress won 31 seats. JJP (Jannayak Janata Park) headed by Dushyant Chautala who played an important role in forming the government.

However, the alliance broke in early 2024 as there were some issues. This led to Manohar Lal Khattar resigning as CM of Haryana along with 13 members, followed by Navab Singh Saini sworn in the Chief Minister of Haryana with support of 48 MLAs.

Jammu and Kashmir Elections:

The Poll panel on Friday along with elections of Haryana, declared the poll schedule for Jammu and Kashmir. The elections are slated to be conducted in 3 Phases. The 1st phase of polls will be conducted on 18th September, the 2nd phase of polls on 25th September and the 3rd phase which is the last phase will be held on 1st October. The poll will be held across 90 seats. Whereas the results will be declared on 4th October.

A crucial election:

The elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held after a period of 10 years. The previous assembly poll was held in the state in the year 2014, where PDP (People’s democratic front) won 28 seats followed by BJP who won 25 seats, followed by Congress party who had won 12 seats in the polls. There were official talks between PDP and BJP to form a government and also worked on a common minimum program. The government led by a coalition of BJP and PDP with Mufti Mohammed Sayed took oath as CM of Jammu and Kashmir on 1^st March for the period of 6 years.

This was the first time that the BJP had taken a part in forming a government in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. However, in June 2018, BJP broke with PDP and the government collapsed.

The elections are being held in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 which was scrapped on 5^th August 2019. The scrapping of Article 370 and the recent delimitation changed the politics of Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh which earlier had 5 assembly seats was classified into Union territory. Due to this, Jammu and Kashmir initially had 87 seats which went up to 90. The elections are being held as per the order of the Supreme Court to conduct polls on the 30^th September.

The former won Anantnag and Srinagar seats, whereas BJP retained the seats in Jammu. In Baramulla LS constituency, Sheikh Abdul Rashid who’s also known as Engineer Rashid, an independent candidate defeated NC’s Omar Abdullah

Maharashtra and Jharkhand Polls:

However, the election commission hasn’t announced the poll schedule for Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Even as the term of their assemblies is coming to end later this year.