Gujarat Assembly Election dates likely to be announced today

The Election Commission will on Wednesday announce the dates for Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017. The announcement is likely to be made at 1 pm today.

The EC had drawn flak from the opposition parties for not announcing the Gujarat polls date along with that of Himachal Pradesh where elections are scheduled to be held on November 9.

The Congress party in particular was very critical of the Election Comission for withholding Gujarat election dates, accusing the poll panel of working on the directions from the Centre. The Congress had alleged that the NDA government had pressurised the EC to delay the announcement so that the Prime Minister could announce sops to his home state before the model code of conduct came into force.

The EC, had on its part, said that the flood relief work was still underway in Gujarat because of which poll dates could not be announced. It said the same government apparatus which is engaged in flood relief work is needed for conducting elections. The Gujarat elections would be a trilateral contest between Indian National Congress (INC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) which is contesting for the first time from the state. The Gujarat Assembly has 182 seats and the current assembly has 118 MLAs of BJP, 42 from Congress, 2 members of NCP and one member of JD (U).