Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : The Election Commission (EC) is set to announce the schedule for Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh on Thursday. The three-member EC headed by Chief Election Commissioner AK Jyoti will address a press conference at 4 pm.
The term of the 182-member Gujarat Assembly ends on January 22, 2018 while that of the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly ends on January 7, 2018. As per reports, the elections are likely to be held in December.
In Himachal, unlike the Congress, the BJP has not invited any applications from candidates for the ticket and the party would conduct surveys to check the winning prospect, popularity and public image of probable candidates.
However, the BJP and the Congress have announced to contest elections from all 68 Assembly seats.
The Congress has announced that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh would lead the party in the polls while the BJP is yet to project someone as the CM candidate.
The BJP and the Congress have both sounded poll bugle with party leaders are targeting each other on many issues.
BJP chief Amit Shah, on October 1, flagged off the party’s ‘Gaurav Yatra’ giving a new slogan to party workers: “I am Gujarat, I am development.” The aim is to counter the Congress’ anti-campaign “Modi’s development has gone mad”.
Even Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, during his election campaign in Saurashtra, picked the “development gone mad” catchline doing rounds in the social media, causing discomfort to the BJP.
The AAP said it would contest the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections, but would field candidates only on seats that met certain criteria set by its central leadership.
