2018 Assembly Elections - Election Commission of India(ECI) Announces Poll Dates For Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana Saturday Oct 06,2018

The Election Commission of India(ECI)announced Saturday the dates for polls in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana.

Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat flanked by Election Commissioners Sunil Arora (L) and Ashok Lavasa (R) address a press conference to announce the dates for Assembly elections in five states, in Delhi, Saturday, Oct 6,2018

While voting will be held in November and December, results for all five states, seen as a bellwether for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, will be announced on December 11,2018

Barring Maoist-affected Chhattisgarh, the other states will conduct elections in a single phase. South Chhattisgarh, with 18 seats, will vote on November 12 and the 72 seats in north Chhattisgarh will vote on November 20,2018

For 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh and 40 seats in Mizoram, the voting will take place on November 28. And Rajasthan and Telangana will poll for their 200 and 119 seats on December 7,2018

Of the five states, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh are ruled by BJP Chief Ministers Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh, while Telangana goes to polls after TRS chief and CM K Chandrashekar Rao dissolved the Assembly in September, nine months before its term expired

Mizoram has never seen a BJP government, and Congress Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has headed the state government since 2008.

The five states together send 83 members to the Lok Sabha, and the outcomes are likely to impact the general election in 2019.

With Chouhan and Raman Singh looking for a fourth consecutive term as chief ministers, the Congress aims to ride an anti-incumbency wave to wrest MP and Chhattisgarh from the BJP. And in Rajasthan, the incumbent BJP will hope to convince voters against the tradition of swapping parties every five years.