Gujarat Assembly Polls 2022: Voting to take place in 2 phases, votes to be counted on Dec 8; check details

The Election Commission of India (ECI) today announced the schedule for the forthcoming Gujarat assembly polls. The state will vote to elect its next government on December 1 and 2 in two phases, respectively.

On 8 December, the results will be declared along with Himachal Pradesh.

The state of Gujarat has a total of 182 assembly constituencies, with 92 being the majority mark. The BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat for more than 20 years, will contest against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Congress.

The term of the Gujarat Assembly ends on 18th February next year.

Earlier, the Himachal Pradesh election dates were announced by the Election Commission of India. The chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar, announced that voting will be held on November 12 and that results will be tallied on December 8.

The Bharatiya Janata Party will look to break the three-decade trend of no ruling party returning to power by defeating the main opposition Congress in the hill state in the elections for the 68-member Assembly with over 55 lakh eligible voters.

However, the election commission had deferred on declaring the Gujarat Assembly poll schedule.

"The Election Commission goes by convention in announcing poll schedules. It has decided to go by the convention which was last followed," Kumar had told reporters when asked why Gujarat polls were not announced.

Rajiv Kumar stated that elections in one state would not affect elections in the other as "there is a gap of 40 days" in the qualifying dates of the state assemblies of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. The term of the Himachal Pradesh assembly ends on January 8, 2023.

There were conjectures that Gujarat polls will still be held in the November-December period so that the votes can be counted on the same day as was the case in 2017. In 2017, the EC announced elections to Himachal Pradesh on October 12 and to Gujarat on October 25. The counting of votes was held on December 18.

However, opposition parties claimed that announcing Gujarat elections later could allow the incumbent government to launch more welfare schemes before the model code of conduct begins.

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