Maharashtra polls not feasible now: CEC

Rajiv Kumar justified not announcing the poll schedule by Maharashtra, attributing it to inadequate availability of security forces due to their deployment for the J&K polls.

The CEC said that in 2019, when elections were held simultaneously for Maharashtra and Haryana, the Assembly election in J&K "was not a factor".

Since the EC had to keep the Supreme Court's deadline of September 30 for the J&K election, the Commission will first conduct polls in J&K, where a huge deployment of forces for the polls and the ongoing Amarnath Yatra is needed, and in Haryana. The CEC has hinted that the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly polls may be held simultaneously later this year.

Likewise, byelections for 46 assembly constituencies and the Wayanad parliamentary constituency will be held later. The Commission said that as Wayanad is still recovering from the landslide tragedy and states such as Bihar and Assam, where several assembly bypolls are due, are grappling with flood-like situations, the bypolls are not being held along with the J&K and Haryana Assembly polls.