Team Herald
NEW DELHI: Only four states are slated to hold the Assembly elections simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls in April, but the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party is contemplating to increase their number to nine and it may be even 10 if Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, an ally of BJP, too advances polls by a year to tackle anti-incumbency factor.
The party is even otherwise in favour of the simultaneous elections. Prime Minister Modi and other BJP leaders aggressively campaigned for “one nation, one election,” but they gave up due to the constitutional hurdles and opposition by other parties, who were particularly opposed to the idea of a government once elected should have the fixed term of five years.
Maharashtra and Haryana are due for Assembly elections in October next and Jharkhand in January 2020. All three states are ruled by the BJP and so their chief ministers can opt for early dissolution of the Houses to go for polls along with the LS elections.
Two other states in calculations of the BJP are Goa and Jammu and Kashmir. It is not able to resolve the issue of the chief minister in the face of serious illness of Manohar Parrikar and bickering among the coalition partners and independents. An early election will prevent the Congress capturing power any time.
Jammu and Kashmir, which had the elections along with Jharkhand in November-December, 2014, is having the Assembly under suspended animation after Mehbooba Mufti government collapsed. Though Assembly elections are due in J&K only in Nov 2020 as its tenure is six years, but the Modi govt may dissolve the House to hold fresh elections in April-May next year.
Four other states where the elections are due along with the Lok Sabha are Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. Telangana also had the Assembly elections in April 2014, but its Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao got the House dissolved six months in advance to have the elections along with four other states. Its elections are scheduled on December 7.
In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has declared to contest the Assembly elections separately and not in alliance with the BJP despite continuing in its coalition government. The BJP’s calculations are that the Sena will be forced to have the alliance if both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are held together.
