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| Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath |
The Election Commission of India (EC) on Friday, the
12th of September 13, 2014, has announced the poll schedule for
Maharashtra Assembly Elections. It is a single-phase polling on Wednesday, the 15th
October covering whole of Maharashtra including the Naxal affected Gadchiroli
region. This means more than 80 million voters will exercise their democratic
right in more than 90,000 polling booths spread across 288 constituencies of the
state on a single day which reminds us of the single day polling done in the
long past when the whole nation voted. With a gap of just 3 days the counting
will be taken up on Sunday, the 19th of October which is set to
reveal if the opposition alliance of Mahayuti (BJP+Shiv Sena+others) could finally end the 15-year-old rule of the
Democratic Front (Congress+NCP). This will be the first major election for the
new Modi Government formed on 26th May, 2014 after BJP thundered to
victory in the Lok Sabha General Elections-2014 reducing Congress to its worst
ever performance in history. In Maharashtra too the Mahayuti made a clear sweep
and it is eagerly awaited if the General Election anti-incumbency trend and the
Modi wave would continue to impact the Maharashtra Assembly Elections. The EC
also announced a single phase polling and counting for the state of Haryana on
the same dates.
The EC notification will be on 20th
September and the last date of filing nominations for candidates is 27th
while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is 1st of October.
This effectively means that the number of days for registration of new voters
is greatly reduced. The electoral rolls close 10 days before the last date of
filing nominations and therefore in Maharashtra new registration will be over
on 17th September. Potential voters thus have just 5 more days to
register themselves. The NOTA option will be available on all EVMs and a new
experiment called VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) system is to be
tried this time in some selected constituencies where the voters can confirm if
their votes have been cast correctly. This system thus could also detect and
eliminate possible election fraud or malfunction.
This Maharashtra Election has been the much awaited
one both in terms of ultimate winners and announcement of dates. The ruling alliance
here has a scam infested background of 15 years like their counterpart UPA
alliance at the centre which was finally thrown out of power after its rule for
10 years. Analysts rate this election as a golden chance for the Mahayuti to
come into power. On the flip side both alliances irrespective of their chances
are still fighting for an elusive seat sharing formula. The Congress-NCP fight
over seats has led to a few of their leaders and former ministers shifting loyalty
by joining the opposition alliance. The ruling alliance rates their chances
high sticking to the development agenda and also has several Chief Ministerial
aspirants.
The BJP-Shiv Sena bickering over seats has several basic reasons:
Shiv Sena has been the main regional party in Maharashtra and so it wants to be
treated like the major partner; however the results in General Elections-2014
and Maharashtra Assembly Elections-2009 show that the surging BJP had won more
seats than the Sena by contesting less number of seats; Shiv Sena was
considerably weakened by the formation of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) by
Raj Thackeray prior to 2009 and was almost marginalized before sort of being rescued
by the BJP in 2014 riding on the Modi wave with the MNS now getting
marginalized due to confused stands; so BJP wants more or at least equal number
of seats; both parties have Chief Ministerial aspirants and therefore have to have more seats than the other so that
their respective aspirants could eventually
become the Chief Minister.
The EC announcements had been expected since the
last week of August. Maybe due to the festive season with the biggest event of
the state—the 11-day Ganesh Festival—concluding only on 8th September
or maybe due to more festivals coming up in the near future or maybe due to the
political indecisiveness regarding declaration of candidates the EC perhaps had
a tough time scheduling the most important event. At the moment there are still
no official lists of candidates declared by any of the major political parties.
Interestingly it is also speculated widely that the on-going fortnight of Pitru Paksha when funeral rites are performed for the souls
of ancestors and which is considered inauspicious for any new initiative is
playing its part in confounding the indecisiveness of the political parties.
Finally, the winners would emerge before Diwali
festival and if there is a clear majority the new government could even be
formed before the big festival of lights. In all eventuality this Diwali is all
set to illuminate a whole lot of people.
