Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar addresses the media for the announcement of dates for Assembly elections to Maharashtra and Jharkhand, in New Delhi on October 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
The Assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20, while Jharkhand polls will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, the Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday (October 15, 2024).
The votes for the two states will be counted on November 23.
“There are 9.63 crore eligible voters in Maharashtra, while the number of eligible voters in Jharkhand is 2.6 crore,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference in New Delhi.
Maharashtra, Jharkhand election 2024 dates LIVE
Bypolls will also be held in 48 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats, the CEC said Bye-elections to 47 assembly seats and the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, vacated by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, will be held on November 13.
Bypolls to the Kedarnath assembly seat in Uttarakhand and the Nanded Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra will be held on November 20. Bypolls to the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal and Milkipur in Uttar Pradesh were not announced as election petitions are pending for the two seats.
Mr. Kumar said elections will be held in both the states on Wednesdays to address the problem of urban apathy.
The BJP is keen to retain power in Maharashtra along with allies Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is facing a challenge from the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition of the Congress-NCPSP-Shiv SenaUBT, which hopes to repeat its performance in the Lok Sabha elections. The Opposition MVA alliance won 31 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections.
In Jharkhand, the Congress is playing second fiddle to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren, while the BJP is looking to make a comeback.
CEC expresses concern over urban apathy, appeals to voters to participate
Expressing concern over urban apathy affecting voter turnout, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that polling days in Maharashtra and Jharkhand have been kept mid-week so that more people vote.
The EC has been flagging the issue of low polling in urban centres including those like Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, and has been taking a number of steps to increase voter awareness.
In the past, it has been seen that urban voters tend to club weekends with the polling day holiday for getaways, etc, and skip polling.
Mr. Kumar appealed to voters in urban areas to participate in elections and said polling days in Maharashtra and Jharkhand have both been kept mid-week so that the issue of urban apathy can be handled.
“We are really really concerned about urban apathy. We want to appeal to all voters in urban areas to come and vote. It is not a healthy trend which is reflected,” he said.
“Look at Gurgaon, look at Faridabad, recently, last election Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Bengaluru South, Gandhinagar, Colaba, Pune, Thane… all are much below state averages of each state,” he said.
“We will be conducting a special meeting of the municipal commissioners in a week’s time to appeal again,” he said.
In Maharashtra, turnouts in 62 of 64 urban assembly constituencies were less than the state average in 2019, as was the case in Lok Sabha elections, he said, adding “We will have a special drive for urban areas”.
He said in the recent Haryana election, there were booths in the “poshest” areas where voting was less than 20 per cent.
“We will do a lot of work on this,” he added.
Published – October 15, 2024 05:30 pm IST
