NEW DELHI, Oct 7: India’s Election Commission on Monday set assembly polls in five states on Dec 1, a context that will inevitably test the prospects for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and opposition leader Sonia Gandhi for next year’s general polls.
Elections to four states Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh — will be held on Dec 1 and elections to the northeastern tribal state of Mizoram have been fixed for Nov 20.
Mr Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had lost the state polls to Ms Gandhi’s Congress party in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi shortly after the May 1998 nuclear tests, ignoring their chauvinist appeal.
The predominantly tribal state of Chhattisgarh that was subsequently carved out of Madhya Pradesh, is also ruled by Congress. In all states except Mizoram, there would be a straight contest between the Congress and the BJP.
The assembly elections will witness for the first time the mandatory filing of affidavits by candidates who must show their financial assets, liabilities, educational qualification and criminal records, if any.
Instructions have been issued to returning officers to make available copies of the affidavits freely to other candidates, general public and media on the very day the nomination is filed by a candidate.
Chief Election Commissioner J. M. Lyngdoh told a press conference that local election officers were instructed to compile information from the affidavits for all assembly segments falling in their district and make available the consolidated information any person seeking it.
The decision on affidavits by candidates was brought into effect on March 27 this year after the directions of the Supreme Court. Also for the first time, proxy voting facilities would be given to the personnel of the armed forces in addition to the postal ballot facilities in this election.
At the current count, in Delhi, the Congress has 52 seats, with the BJP way behind at 15 in an assembly of 70 seats.
In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly, the Congress has 124 seats and the BJP 83.
The Congress-led Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan has 153 and the BJP has just 33 seats, which is barely 16 per cent in an assembly of 200.
In Chhattisgarh, where assembly elections will be held for the first time after the new state was formed, the seat tally between the BJP and Congress is close. While the Congress has 48 seats, the BJP has 36.
The only state where the two national parties don’t have much at stake is Mizoram. The seat tally is dominated by regional parties, what with the Mizo National Front with 21 seats, Congress 6 and BJP nil.