Election Commission to announce poll schedule for Telangana, four other States on Monday

According to reports, the ECI is set to announce the schedule during a press conference to be held at 12 noon at Akashwani in New Delhi. The announcement, if not postponed, will see the five States including Telangana going to polls most probably in early December.

Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India will announce the schedule of general elections to the Assemblies of Telangana, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan on Monday.

The ECI will announce the schedule during a press conference to be held at 12 noon at Akashwani in New Delhi, stated a press release. The announcement, if not postponed, will see the five States including Telangana going to polls most probably in early December.

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The developments were quite similar to how the entire process went in 2018, when the ECI had announced the schedule on October 6 for these five States. In Rajasthan and Telangana, polling was held on December 7 that time around, while in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram, polling was held on November 28. In Chhattisgarh, polling was held in two phases. The first phase was held on November 12 and the second phase was on November 20.

Counting was held on December 11 for all the States.

Telangana, this time, is set to witness a contest between the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the Congress and the BJP in the election. Last time, BRS (then TRS) retained power with an overwhelming majority as it won 88 seats out of 119 and had a dominant vote share of 47.4 per cent. It had increased its 2014 tally of 63 seats by 25 constituencies. Congress came a distant second with 19 seats. Its vote share was 28.7 per cent. The BJP had just one seat in the Assembly after the elections.

In Madhya Pradesh, the State will elect legislators from 230 Assembly constituencies. In the 2018 elections, Congress won 114 seats with a vote share of 41.5 percent while the BJP came second with 109 seats. Its vote share was 41.6 per cent. However, in 2020, the Congress government lost the majority after the resignations of some MLAs belonging to a faction led by Jyotiraditya Scindia, who later joined the BJP. After this, the BJP formed the government in the State and Shivraj Singh Chouhan was reinstated as Chief Minister.

The Congress party holds the majority in the Rajasthan Assembly, which comprises 200 seats, with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot leading the State government. The previous assembly elections in the State were held in December 2018, when the Indian National Congress emerged as the single-largest party. Congress managed to win 99 seats, falling short by 1 seat to secure the majority mark. With a vote share of 39.8 per cent, Congress, however, formed the State government after an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party and the support of independent MLAs. BJP managed to secure 73 seats and its vote share was 39.3 percent.

Congress also managed to win 68 seats out of 90 in Chhattisgarh. The party garnered a vote share of 43.9 per cent. BJP won 15 seats and managed to gather a vote share of 33.6 per cent.

In the 40-seat Assembly of Mizoram, the Mizo National Front won 26 seats with a vote share of 37.8 per cent. Congress secured 5 seats and BJP won a single seat. Zoramthanga is the current Chief Minister.