Dates
for the Gujarat Assembly elections will be announced at 12 pm Thursday, November
3. The Election Commission will conduct a press conference to announce the
schedule. The 182-member Gujarat Assembly’s term ends on February 18, 2023.
The announcement
follows much consternation over why there was a delay in announcing the Gujarat
poll schedule even though Himachal Pradesh’s schedule had been announced.
Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh typically take place at the
same time. This year, elections in Himachal Pradesh will take place on November
12. Results will be announced on December 8.
Observers
say it’s likely that while the elections to the two states will happen at
different times, the results will be declared on the same day. That is what
happened in 2017, when elections happened on separate days but results were
declared on the same day. Gujarat, being a much bigger state, is also expected
to see polling in multiple phases.
The Election
Commission decided to announce the Himachal Pradesh election dates before
Gujarat because Himachal being a hill state witnesses a difficult winter while
Gujarat was suffering floods at the time the poll body made its call.
Gujarat
elections are significant across the Indian political framework. The Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) has been in power in Gujarat and India’s current prime
minister, Narendra Modi, was chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. Gujarat
is perhaps BJP’s strongest hold and the ruling party at the Centre would like
to put up a good show.
While
the Congress is BJP’s traditional rival in Gujarat, it is Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP) that has had most of the attention so far. The Delhi chief
minister is personally spearheading AAP’s campaign in the state and observers
think it may be possible for Kejriwal to create a dent big enough to emerge as
the second largest party in the state.
The
announcement of the Gujarat Assembly polls schedule is happening in the
backdrop of the Morbi bridge tragedy in which 156 people were killed.
