The Model Code of Conduct immediately comes into force from Saturday in both the states.
The Election Commission also announced by-elections for one Lok Sabha seat in Bihar and 64 assembly constituencies spread across 18 states.
IMAGE: Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora flanked by Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa, left, and Sunil Chandra, right, during a press conference at Election Commission in New Delhi. Photograph: Shahbaz Khan/PTI Photo
The Election Commission on Saturday announced that the single-phase assembly elections for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly and 90-member Haryana assembly will be held on October 21.
Counting of votes in both the states will be held on October 24, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said at press conference in New Delhi.
Arora, along with Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra announced the dates.
As per norms, the Model Code of Conduct immediately comes into force from Saturday in both the states.
The terms of the legislative assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra are due to expire on November 2 and November 9, respectively, Arora said.
Out of 90 seats, 17 are reserved for SCs and none for STs in Haryana, while Maharashtra assembly has 29 seats reserved for SCs and 25 for STs out of the total of 288 seats, Arora said.
There are 1,82,98,714 voters in Haryana this time, while Maharashtra has 8,95,62,706 registered voters.
Arora shared that special security arrangements will be made for Left Wing Extremism affected areas in Gadchiroli and Gondia in Maharashtra.
On the demand of increasing expenditure limit, Arora said that political parties have been informed that it is not possible.
On a question about Jharkhand, Arora said, “The issue of simultaneous election is still not settled. The tenure is yet to get over in Jharkhand.”
The electoral photo identity cards coverage in final electoral rolls of 2nd SSR is 100 per cent for Haryana and 96.81 per cent for Maharashtra.
Bypolls to 64 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha constituency spread across 18 states will also be held on October 21 and the counting of votes will be on October 24, the Election Commission announced.
While assembly by-elections will be held on 64 assembly seats, the Samastipur Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar will also have a bypoll.
These assembly seats include 15 in Karnataka and 11 in Uttar Pradesh.
Arora said the byolls in Karnataka will be held on seats, including where sitting MLAs were disqualified recently.
The 11 UP assembly seats mostly belong to MLAs who had won the Lok Sabha elections and had resigned as members of the state assembly.
The Samastipur (Bihar) Lok Sabha by-election was necessitated following the death of sitting MP Ram Chandra Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party in July.
Responding to a question, Arora said the bypoll to the Satara Lok Sabha seat will not be held along with the Maharashtra assembly elections on October 21.
Satara MP from Nationalist Congress Party Udayanraje Bhosale had recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party after resigning from the Lok Sabha.
Assembly bypolls in West Bengal are not being held now as the state government had cited the Durga Puja festivities to postpone the exercise. They will also not be held in Uttarakhand now as panchayat elections are already underway and the state machinery is occupied with the exercise, Arora said.
In some other seats, by-elections are not being held as respective high courts are hearing election petitions and the matters are sub judice, he added.
States where assembly bypolls will be held are Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha and Puducherry (one seat each).
The other states are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Gujarat (4), Himachal Pradesh (2), Kerala (5), Punjab (4), Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu (two each) and Sikkim (3).
The notification for on the Lok Sabha bypoll and 64 assembly by-elections will be issued on September 23.
The nomination process will begin the same day.
