New Delhi: After much delay and criticism, the Election Commission on Wednesday announced a two-phase poll in Gujarat on December 9 and 14, setting off a high-decibel faceoff between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress.
Counting will be held on December 18 along with that of Himachal Pradesh. The parties will now have up to 50 days to campaign.
The poll process in the state will start on November 14 with the issue of the gazette notification for the first phase. Candidates can start filing their nominations from that day. While the first phase will be held in 89 of 182 seats, the notification for the second phase will be issued on November 20 for the other 93 seats in 14 districts.
After widespread claims following the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls that EVMs were tampered with, the EC announced that a paper trail of votes will be used in all 50,128 polling stations of 182 Assembly constituencies to ensure transparency. All voters in Gujarat will be able to see their votes cast through the Voter-Verified Paper Trail Audit (VVPAT) machines, which will be installed along with the electronic voting machines.
The Congress claimed that the EC had declared the dates after facing moral pressure from the Opposition. “The EC did not carry out its constitutional duties. The argument over delay in announcing dates due to flood relief operation is the weirdest we have heard so far,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said.
Gujarat PCC chief Bharat Singh Solanki said the delay in announcement of poll dates shows that in Gujarat, the BJP is running scared. “After Uttar Pradesh there was a talk of preponing the Gujarat elections, but now they have postponed it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the state again and again. The entire Cabinet has also been sent there,” Mr Solanki said.
The BJP was quick to hit back, reminding the Congress that only a few weeks ago it was praising the EC for its role in the Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat, Union minister Arun Jaitley said that the commission cannot be browbeaten by a disgruntled party.
He said when two states are going to the polls around at a gap of four to five weeks, it was not necessary that both states should be bound by the same schedule for enforcement of the model code of conduct. The Union minister said when the model code of conduct comes into effect, many policy decisions of the government cannot be implemented and if the code of conduct is in effect for a longer period, it is not good for democracy.
Mr Jaitley said just because the Congress wants to have a 35-day of code of conduct in a Congress-ruled state (Himachal Pradesh) and a 70-days code in a BJP-ruled state (Gujarat), the poll panel was not bound by it.
“Just recently over the Rajya Sabha polls, the Congress was singing praises of the Election Commission. Therefore, the Election Commission is not supposed to be browbeaten by a political party. The Election Commission is duty bound to act in accordance with the law,” said the Union minister.
The high-voltage Gujarat battle has seen the Congress and the BJP taking repeated digs at each other. The Congress is trying to stick together a rainbow coalition of Patidars, OBCs and tribals. While OBC leader Alpesh Thakore has joined Congress, Patidar leader Hardik Patel and dalit leader Jignesh Mewani might possibly support it from outside.
The Sharad Yadav faction of the JD(U) has also decided to join forces with the Congress. The BJP is, meanwhile, trying to protect its citadel where it has been in power for the last 22 years.
