Maharashtra Oppn questions short 35-day runup to elections

Lok Sabha polls held over 5 phases so why hold assembly elections in single phase, asks Oppn.

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.

Asked about the fate of these schemes if the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance came to power, Wadettiwar said, "We note that some schemes will strain the state's finances, but we will not scrap all of them. We will evaluate and continue the schemes that genuinely aim to help the people. Additionally, our administration will prioritise improving the safety of women in public spaces."

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.