LIVE: Maharashtra election on Nov 20; Jharkhand on Nov 13, 20; result on Nov 23

CEC expresses concern over urban apathy, appeals to voters to participate in polls

Expressing concern over urban apathy affecting voter turnout, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday said that polling days in Maharashtra and Jharkhand have been kept mid-week so that more people vote.

Assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20, and in Jharkhand in two phases on November 13 and 20.

The EC has been flagging the issue of low polling in urban centres including those like Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, and has been taking a number of steps to increase voter awareness.

In the past, it has been seen that urban voters tend to club weekends with the polling day holiday for getaways, etc, and skip polling.

Kumar appealed to voters in urban areas to participate in elections and said polling days in Maharashtra and Jharkhand have both been kept mid-week so that the issue of urban apathy can be handled.

"We are really really concerned about urban apathy. We want to appeal to all voters in urban areas to come and vote. It is not a healthy trend which is reflected," he said.

"Look at Gurgaon, look at Faridabad, recently, last election Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Bengaluru South, Gandhinagar, Colaba, Pune, Thane... all are much below state averages of each state," he said.

"We will be conducting a special meeting of the municipal commissioners in a week's time to appeal again," he said.

In Maharashtra, turnouts in 62 of 64 urban assembly constituencies were less than the state average in 2019, as was the case in Lok Sabha elections, he said, adding "We will have a special drive for urban areas".

He said in the recent Haryana election, there were booths in the "poshest" areas where voting was less than 20 per cent.

"We will do a lot of work on this," he added.

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Wave of support for MVA in Maharashtra: Congress

The Congress on Tuesday claimed a "wave" supporting Maha Vikas Aghadi is sweeping through Maharashtra, asserting that the opposition bloc will go to the polls with an agenda to "save" the state from NDA.

Maharashtra Congress working president Naseem Khan said the party will ensure "issues" do not crop up at the micro level, hinting that factionalism will not be allowed to spread.

The MVA comprises Shiv Sena (UBT) headed by Uddhav Thackeray, Congress, and NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar.

The MVA had won 30 out of 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra, restricting the NDA to 17 seats.

Khan said Congress has strong candidates in all the constituencies and a list of aspirants will soon be sent to the Congress Election Committee (CEC).

"Names of selected candidates will be declared in the coming days once the MVA allies finalise seat-sharing. 80 per cent of the seat-sharing work has been completed and the rest will be finalised in a few days," the senior Congress leader told reporters in Nagpur.

Khan, the Congress observer for 12 constituencies in Nagpur district, said 113 candidates have so far applied for tickets. He is interviewing Congress aspirants for 12 constituencies.

"A wave in support of MVA is sweeping through Vidarbha, Marathwada, Konkan, western Maharashtra and Mumbai," he added.

Responding to seven members of Mahayuti allies- Shiv Sena, BJP, and NCP- taking oath as MLCs from the Governor quota hours before the Election Commission of India's presser, Khan alleged the swearing-in was illegal.

"This is an illegal government created illegally by splitting Shiv Sena and NCP. Similarly, the oath ceremony of MLCs is illegal because the matter is sub judice. The government illegally rushed this oath-taking," he alleged.

Queried whether senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has directed the party leaders from Maharashtra not to be overconfident and to work unitedly considering the Haryana debacle, Khan said Congress leaders are working very seriously even at the micro level.

"Congress has taken the upcoming Maharashtra contest very seriously. The MVA is fighting to save Maharashtra. Every issue is looked into strategically," he added.

Polls should have been announced earlier, less time for campaign: Maharashtra Oppn parties

The Opposition in Maharashtra on Tuesday said the 35-day period during which the assembly elections process will take place is shorter than usual while the poll body gave enough time to the government to announce a slew of schemes.

It also pointed out that elections to the 288-member Maharashtra assembly, the second largest after Uttar Pradesh (403), will be held in a single phase on November 20, even though this year's Lok Sabha elections were held in five phases in the state.

Counting of votes will take place on November 23, the Election Commission announced earlier on Tuesday.

Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar said, "The ECI generally gives a minimum of 40 days for the political parties to finalise their candidates, for submission of nominations, and the campaign. But this time it is 35 days, which is unusual and which gives us less time to campaign as well. It could be a part of some plan to give the Opposition little time," he claimed, adding that the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP government has rampantly announced schemes in the run-up to the elections without any application of mind and it will hit the state coffers.

Jayant Patil, state president of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), said, "The ECI held Lok Sabha elections in five stages in Maharashtra, but it has now decided to hold elections for the assembly in one stage. It is good that the NDA government in Maharashtra will lose at one stroke." The announcement of the assembly elections should have been made earlier, but the state government was given enough time to announce more and more welfare schemes and sanction development works, he claimed.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said, "Compared to the Lok Sabha, the performance of the MVA which is part of the INDIA bloc will be better. There is no need to worry about the seat-sharing formula." He also claimed that the questions raised by several Opposition parties over the possible misuse of EVMs were not properly addressed by the EC officials. 

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Siddaramaiah: Ready to face Assembly bypolls

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said the ruling Congress is ready to face the by-elections in Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur Assembly constituencies.

The Election Commission announced that the by-elections would be held in the three segments on November 13. "We are ready to face the by-elections and have made all the preparations. We will contest it," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

The by-polls in Channapatna, Shiggaon, and Sandur were due after H D Kumaraswamy (JD(S)), Basavaraj Bommai (BJP) and E Tukaram (Congress) resigned following their victory in the Lok Sabha elections in May this year. 

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