Maharashtra Assembly polls on October 13

Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh would be held on a single day on October 13 and 7, respectively, the Election Commission announced here on Wednesday.

The model code of conduct kicks in immediately. Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishna Murthy announced that the entire election would be conducted on electronic voting machines (EVMs). Along with the Assembly polls, by-elections to four Lok Sabha and 41 Assembly seats in 14 states would be held on October 13, he said.

All the political parties, which had been waiting for this announcement, were galvanised into action immediately.

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party started preliminary talks on seat-sharing at residence of Congress leader Patangrao Kadam, state parliamentary affairs minister, in Mumbai.

With Sharad Pawar having declared that a third of the seats would be reserved for women, Congress leaders say negotiations are likely to be intensive.

The formula for seat sharing""whether the partners should give seats to sitting MLAs, in what proportion they should share seats, whether new parties will join the DF alliance""are all questions that have been postponed for a later meeting between Pawar and Congress leaders in Delhi.

At this moment, Congress sources said, talks were being held between second- rung leaders like MPCC chief Prabha Rau, state NCP chief RR Patil, Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar and former Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal.

The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance also got down to serious work. State BJP chief Gopinath Munde, senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan and BJP organising secretary Sanjay Joshi will hold meetings to be chaired by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to discuss seat sharing.

"We will release the first list comprising almost 50 per cent seats on September 15 and subsequently the second and probably the final list thereafter within one week," Munde said.

"If voted to power, we would review all the decisions of the Democratic Front government taken during last six months," he said, adding the Congress-NCP government had taken many decisions in its spree to please certain quarters and had allotted prime lands of CIDCO, which was never done in such haste.

"If we regain power at Mumbai, we have decided to reopen all such cases of land allotments made to benefit a select lot," Munde, former deputy chief minister, asserted.

According to schedule announced by the Election Commission, the notification for Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh will be issued on September 15 and 13, respectively, and the last date for filing nominations will be September 22 and 20.

While the scrutiny of nominations for Maharashtra will take place on September 23 and that of Arunachal Pradesh on September 21, the last date for withdrawal of names in Maharashtra is September 25 and September 23 in Arunchal Pradesh. Counting is scheduled for October 16.