Maharashtra, Haryana poll schedule announced, Model Code of Conduct comes into effect

The Election Commission on Saturday announced that the single-phase voting for Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections will be held on October 21, while counting of votes will take place on October 24.

Addressing media here on Saturday, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said notification will be issued on September 27, the last date of nomination will be on October 4 and the last date for withdrawal of application is October 7.

With the announcement of poll dates, Model Code of Conduct has come into effect in both the states.

Haryana has a strength of 90 seats out of which 17 are reserved for SC and none for ST, while Maharashtra Assembly has strength of 288 seats out of 29 are reserved for SC and 25 for ST, Arora said.

Haryana has 1.82 crore registered voters out of which 1.07 lakh are service voters and Maharashtra has 8.94 crore voters of which 1.16 lakh are service voters.

In Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government is in power after the party won 47 out of a total of 90 seats in the 2014 Assembly elections, while the Congress was restricted to just 15 seats.

In 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections, BJP won 122 seats, Shiv Sena received 63 seats, while Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) could only manage 42 and 41 respectively from a total of 288.

The five-year term of the Legislative Assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra will expire on November 2 and November 9, Arora said.

"Election campaigns impose an environmental cost upon us. We appeal to political parties to avoid the use of plastic and use only environment-friendly material in their campaigns," he said.

He further shared that on demand of several political parties in Maharashtra, more than 5,000 polling booths, which were on the first or second-floor level have been brought to the ground level.

Moreover, special security arrangements have been made for LWE affected areas in Gadchiroli and Gondia in Maharashtra.

Arora said that the expenditure limit will be Rs 28 lakh in both the states.