NEW DELHI, 25 August 2004 — Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh will be held on Oct. 13 and Oct. 7, respectively. Along with this, be-elections to four Parliament seats and 41 assembly seats in 14 states will also be held, Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishna Murthy announced here yesterday.
The code of conduct for the elections would immediately come into effect in Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra and their governors would issue the notification for the assembly elections Sept. 13 and Sept.15 respectively.
The last date for filing nomination papers for the election to the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly is Sept. 20, while papers would be received for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly till Sept. 22.
These would be taken up for scrutiny Sept. 21 and Sept. 23 respectively, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature would be Sept. 23 for Arunachal Pradesh and Sept. 25 for Maharashtra.
The counting of votes would be taken up on Oct. 10 in Arunachal Pradesh and Oct. 16 in Maharashtra. Results are likely to be announced the same day.
In all, 25,000 electronic voting machines would be used for the assembly polls and the by-elections.
The four Parliament constituencies where by-elections would be held are Mainpuri and Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh, Madhepura in Bihar and Bidar in Karnataka.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav vacated the Mainpuri seat after being elected to the state assembly, while his archrival Mayawati resigned the Akbarpur seat.
The by-election in Madhepura was necessitated after Railway Minister Lalu Prasad vacated the seat, having been elected from Chapra as well. Bidar fell vacant following the death of BJP MP Ramachandra Veerappa.
The chief election commissioner said special revision of electoral rolls in Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra had been completed and the rolls posted on the poll panel’s website.
The Arunachal Pradesh Assembly was prematurely dissolved on July 6 as against its original term till Oct. 12, while the term of the Maharashtra legislature expires on Oct. 20, Krishna Murthy said.
The entire election process would be completed before Oct 18 in Arunachal Pradesh and by Oct. 25 in Maharashtra and other constituencies where by-elections would be held.
