The recently appointed chief electoral officer (CEO) of Rajasthan Naveen Mahajan will have to wait for a while. The election commission has not announced the dates of by-election on 46 assembly seats including six of Rajasthan along with Haryana and J&K assembly polls. While Haryana goes for poll on October 1, elections in J&K will be conducted in three phases – September 18, September 25 and October 1, 2024.
The chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the dates of by-elections will be announced in appropriate time.
The elections in two more states are also round the corner. The term of assembly in Maharashtra is ending in November while that of Jharkhand is ending in January.
The by-elections then in Rajasthan and other state assemblies are likely in November. Rajasthan will have bypolls in Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli-Uniara, Khinvsar, Chaurasi and Salumbar, which is vacated due to death of its MLA from BJP Amrit Lal Meena.
Jhunjhunu seat is vacated by Lok Sabha MP Brijendra Ola, Dausa by Murari Lal Meena while Deoli-Uniara by Harish Meena – all three Congress leaders. Out of the remaining two Chaurasi is vacated by Raj Kumar Rot while Khinvsar by Hanuman Beniwal – both Congress allies.
”So in the ensuing bypolls, BJP has nothing much to lose while Congress and its allies have five seats at stake. BJP will go to polls with an upper hand,” said Rajesh Vivek, a political analyst.
Meanwhile, CEO Naveen Mahajan will have some busy schedule as the election on one seat of Rajya Sabha is going to be held on September 3. The seat has been vacated by Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal after he was elected in Lok Sabha elections from Alapuzzha constituency.
Congress set to lose the seat
The Congress is set to lose this seat as it doesn't have 98 votes in assembly needed for the election. The BJP will win this as it has 114 members in the assemble as against Congress' 66.
Currently, out of 9 seats, a congress has five candidates in Rajya Sabha while BJP has four. With this win, both the parties will have equal seats. These numbers then are likely to rain intact till June 2026 when two seats will get vacant. Rajendra Gehlot from BJP and Neeraj Dangi from Congress will complete their terms.
Prakash Bhandari is a veteran journalist with over 50 years of experience. He has worked with The Times of India for 30 years and contributed to leading publications as well as international news agency AFP.
