General Elections and 11 Assembly elections to be held together

The BJP has cleverly tossed an idea of holding the General Elections and 11 states Assembly elections in the first half of 2019 to gauge the public mood.

Unnamed BJP sources on Monday evening planted a story in mainstream media saying General Election and 11 Assembly elections can be held together by advancing and delaying some state elections.

This was a pure planted story to gauge the public mood as purportedly a top party leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they are exploring the possibility of deferring assembly elections of some states by a few months and advancing some others to ensure they are held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.

The terms of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh assemblies will expire in January next year and the governments of these BJP-ruled states may recommend a brief spell of governor's rule so that assembly elections there could be held with the Lok Sabha polls, said the leader.

The tenure of the assembly in the Congress-ruled Mizoram is ending in December this year.

BJP sources said other states where assembly polls can be advanced to enable it to be held with the Lok Sabha polls are Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra – all under the BJP's rule.

Assembly elections in these three states are also scheduled next year following the Lok Sabha polls.

Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana are anyway scheduled to be held with the parliamentary polls, he said.

Another state where talks of advancing assembly elections are doing the rounds is Bihar, where they are due in 2020 end. The BJP is a junior partner in the state government led by JDU's Nitish Kumar.

The BJP may like to ride on the Modi magic in these states if election can be held together. The constitutional expert are however skeptical how Presidents Rule could be justified.

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