EC to announce dates for Gujarat assembly elections 2017 today

The Election Commission (EC) will announce on Monday the dates for for the crucial Gujarat assembly elections 2017.

Last week, Congress leader P Chidambaram had criticised the EC saying that by not announcing the Gujarat poll schedule, it has "authorised" Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the dates at his last rally, after all "freebies" for the state were doled out.

The Congress had alleged that the NDA government had pressurised the EC to delay the announcement of Gujarat election schedule, so that the prime minister could offer sops to his home state before the model code of conduct came into force.

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, which comprises of 182 members, has 118 MLAs of BJP, 42 from Congress, 2 members of NCP and one member of JD (U).

In two major developments, prominent Patidar faces and Hardik Patel's two close aides Varun Patel and Reshma Patel joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and popular OBC face Alpesh Thakor confirmed that he would join Congress.

Varun and Reshma were among the prominent faces of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) and remained critical of the ruling BJP. However, they decided to join the saffron party after a meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and state party chief Jitu Vaghani during its parliamentary board meeting, which was also attended by BJP president Amit Shah.

On October 12, the EC had announced Assembly poll schedule for Himachal Pradesh but did not announce the dates for Gujarat, only saying that it would go to the polls before December 18.

OneIndia News