Assembly elections in Tripura will be held on February 18 while two other North-eastern States of Meghalaya and Nagaland will go to polls on February 27.
Announcing the dates for the polls, Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti on Thursday said the counting will be held on March 3.
The notification for Tripura will be issued on January 24, beginning the process of filing of nominations. January 31 will be the last date for filing papers. The scrutiny will take place on February 1 and February 3 will be the last date for withdrawal from the electoral battle.
Buoyed by its recent victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and having formed its first Government in Assam in 2016, the BJP is looking at expanding its base in the North-eastern States. For the Congress, which is in power in Meghalaya, the electoral fight in the three North-eastern States will be a challenge given its fading profile in the region. After losing Assam to the BJP, retaining Meghalaya is crucial for the party.
The real fight to watch out for would be in Tripura where left has been in power for five terms with Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on the driver’s seat for four consecutive terms. Besides Kerala, Tripura is the only State where CPI(M)-led front is in power.
In Nagaland, the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland and BJP are part of a coalition Government. The Naga People’s Front rules Nagaland under the chief ministership of TR Zeliang. “The term of the Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura Assemblies is ending on March 6, March 13 and March 14 respectively. The three Assemblies have 60 members each,” Joti said. For Meghalaya and Nagaland, the poll notification will be out on January 31, while the last date for filing nominations will be February 7. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is February 12, Joti said.
A total of 25,69,216 people are entitled to vote in Tripura, 11,89,264 in Nagaland and 18,30,104 in Meghalaya. The BJP is trying to make inroads in these three States while the Congress and the left are seeking to retain their foothold.
Joti, who was flanked by election commissioners OP Rawat and Sunil Arora, at the media briefing to announce polls in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, said there would be 100 per cent deployment of voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units in all the three states. Also, VVPAT results will be tallied in one polling station each of every constituency of the poll-going States.
Joti later said a similar tallying in four polling stations of Goa, 182 polling stations in Gujarat and 68 polling stations in Himachal Pradesh so far had yielded a 100 percent match between VVPAT count and EVM result.
This is the first time that the None of The Above (NOTA) option has got a symbol ‘cross’ on electronic voting machines (EVMs). The cross is a universal sign denoting disapproval. This makes the Nota symbol easy to recognise and remember. The symbol was designed by the National institute of Design (NID).
The present Assembly strength in Tripura is largely tilted in favour of the left with the CPI-M having 50 members and the CPI one. The BJP has seven MlAs while the Congress has two lawmakers in the state. In Meghalaya, the Congress has 24 MlAs, the UDP seven, the HSPDP four, the BJP and the NCP two each and others 10. There are nine vacancies in the State Assembly. In Nagaland, the ruling NPF has 45 legislators, the BJP four and the JD (U) one MlA. The NCP has one lawmaker, while there are nine Independents. One seat is vacant.
Though some lok Sabha bypolls are also due in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in UP. Araria in Bihar and Anantnag in J&K -- the schedule for the same is yet to be announced. Joti said the lok Sabha poll in UP cannot be announced as of now as the electoral rolls for the poll-bound seats with January 1, 2018 as the reference date will be published only on February 9. The bypolls must be held on the basis of the new electoral rolls, as per norms. Anantnag bypoll, which was postponed in mid-2017 due to law and order concerns, is likely to be held after the panchayat polls in J&K are held.