Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) Elections will be held in Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand between Jan 28 and March 3, 2012 in a battle involving 137 million voters. The votes will be counted March 4.

It will be the biggest test for political parties in the country since Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala went to the polls in April-May this year.

Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi told reporters here Saturday that while the Uttar Pradesh ballot will be staggered over seven phases from Feb 4 to 28, the other four states will have a single-day voting.

The elections come amid an imminent showdown between the government and Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign. The activist has vowed to campaign in all five states in support of a strong Lokpal.

At least one analyst felt the elections will have an impact on the central government.

“The elections may have an effect on central politics, and popular pressure on the central government may multiply,” Paras Nath Choudhary, formerly from the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, told IANS.

Battleground 2012 will involve a multi-party election in Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-ruled Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state where voters will pick a 403-member assembly.

Besides the BSP, the other main actors in the elections will be the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party, Akali Dal and the Manipur People’s Party.

The elections will kick off from Congress-ruled Manipur Jan 28, followed by Punjab, which has an Akali Dal-led government, and BJP-governed Uttarakhand Jan 30.

In Uttar Pradesh, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is already campaigning extensively. But the Samajwadi Party has vowed to return to power. Uttarakhand will be direct contest between the BJP and Congress.

Goa, the smallest of the states, will see a face off between the ruling Congress and BJP.

Uttar Pradesh’s polling will be spread over Feb 4, 8, 11, 15, 19, 23 and 28. Goa will go to polls March 3.

A total of 137 million people will be eligible to vote in all five states. Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for 111.9 million voters.

Punjab (117 seats) has 17.4 million voters, Uttarakhand (70 seats) 5.7 million, Manipur (60 seats) 1.6 million, while Goa (40 seats) has just one million voters.

A total of 151,517 polling stations will be in place. Uttar Pradesh will itself have 128,112.

Qureshi said the model code of conduct would come “into effect immediately” to prevent central and state governments from giving out sops to woo the electorate.

Home ministry sources told IANS that some 80,000 paramilitary troops would be deployed.

Almost all political parties welcomed the election schedule.

Congress leader Harish Rawat said the party would cash in on the anti-incumbency factor in Uttarakhand and Punjab.

Qureshi said the panel would closely monitor the election expenditure as “money power is a serious matter”.

He said all airports, railway stations and bus depots would be under vigil to check the inflow of unaccounted money into the poll-bound states.

Candidates would be required to open a new bank account from which alone they can spend campaign money. “This will help facilitate monitoring,” the poll panel chief said.

A 24-hour call centre would be operational for the first time to register poll related complaints. It can be reached on telephone number 1950, which happens to be the year the Election Commission was born.

Qureshi said videography would be done extensively of all events during the elections.

He urged candidates and political parties not to seek votes in the name of castes and communities, and said no campaign would be allowed in religious shrines.

Officials said the election dates had been decided taking into account the weather, academic schedules, festivals, law and order situation, availability and needs of security forces, and “other ground realities”.