CM Manohar Lal Khattar says Haryana ready for simultaneous polls

Tribune News Service

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, May 14

With Assembly elections in Haryana slated for October next year, four months after the General Election in May, and CM Manohar Lal Khattar declaring his government was “poll ready,” political circles are abuzz with talk of simultaneous polls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has time and again pitched for “one nation, one election”. Not ruling out such a possibility, Khattar, on a three-day tour of Sirsa for the Jan Samvad programme that concluded on Sunday, maintained that his government and the party (BJP) were ready for simultaneous polls, adding that holding parallel elections was the prerogative of the Election Commission.

Sources said the CM had completed the Jan Samvad programme in eight districts and a plan was already in place for the remaining districts. A senior BJP leader, however, said a decision regarding simultaneous polls would depend on the results in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram where elections are scheduled for the year end.

BJP’s ally, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), has also said it is ready for simultaneous elections. Buoyed over its big win in Karnataka, the Congress in Haryana too is prepared for it. The JJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister, Dushyant Chautala, at a programme in Narnaul last week, had said the party cadre was ready for simultaneous polls. “Whether the elections are held together or a few months apart, the Congress is ever-ready,” Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said.

Meanwhile, it is not clear if allies BJP and JJP alliance will fight the elections together. Even as BJP workers at various meetings have asserted they want to go it alone, JJP leaders at their programmes have repeatedly said they are gearing up to contest all seats.

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