Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2019 dates announced: Voting on Oct 21, results on Oct 24

The Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana will be held on October 21, the Election Commission announced on Saturday. The results for both will be declared on October 24.

Announcing the schedule of the Assembly polls in both the states, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said, “The Assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra will be held on October 21 and the counting of votes will take place on October 24.”

The CEC also announced that random tally of EVMs will be done like it was done in case of of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“EVMs are safe, they cannot be tampered with. Candidates are free to come to near the strong rooms at a safe distance,” Arora said.

The notification for the elections will be issued on September 27.

“The last date for filing nomination is October 4, while the scrutiny of the nomination papers will be done on October 5,” he said, adding that the last day for withdrawing nominations is October 7.

To ensure smooth polling, special security would be provided to left-wing extremist affected areas like Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, Arora said.

The tenure of the 90-member Haryana legislative assembly will expire on November 2, while that of 288-member Maharashtra will end on November 9.

Haryana has 1.28 crore voters and Maharashtra 8.9 crore voters.

In the 2014 Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the BJP had won 122 seats, its ally Shiv Sena 63 seats, the Congress 42 seats, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 41 seats while others managed 20.

The Congress and the NCP had contested the 2014 Assembly polls separately after sharing power for 15 years in the state.

In the 2014 Assembly polls in Haryana, the BJP won 47 seats followed by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) at 19 while the ruling Congress managed just 15 seats.

Two seats went to the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), and one each to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Five Independents were also elected.