New Delhi: The Election
Commission of India announced the poll dates for the crucial Gujarat and Himachal
Pradesh assembly election on Wednesday evening.
Assembly elections will be held in two
phases in Gujarat on December 13 and 17, while Himachal Pradesh will vote for a
new government on November 4.
The counting for both states will be
conducted on 20 December.
The announcement came hours after Congress
President Sonia Gandhi officially unleashed the party’s campaign in Gujarat
with a hurtful attack on the BJP.
The much awaited and much hyped Gujarat
election is somehow seen as the direct and arguable spar between the two major
national party of the India i.e Indian National Congress (INC) and Bhartiya
Janata Party (BJP).
However, the Congress has welcomed the
polls saying that these would not be a referendum on the performance of the
central government.
Earlier, on Wednesday morning
the commission has finalised the schedule for the assembly polls in the two
states in its full meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath
and attended by Election Commissioners HS Brahma and Nasim Zaidi and other
officials, EC sources said.
The commission has
already held consultations with the Home Ministry for deployment of central
security forces during the elections and with revenue officials for checking
the misuse of money power.
More than 35,000
personnel from central paramilitary forces and around 55,000 from state police
are likely to be deployed for the Gujarat polls.
Around 9,000 personnel
from paramilitary forces and 14,000 from state police are likely to be deployed
for Himachal Pradesh elections.
This election is vital in the sense that the
nation as Uttar Pradesh, country's most populous state, has voted in
February-March this year, along with Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur.
Notably, the Both Himachal Pradesh (68 seats) and Gujarat (182 seats) are ruled
by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with the Congress desperate to dislodge
it.