NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) Thursday will conduct a meeting on the upcoming Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections, scheduled to be held later this year.
The date for elections to the 288 assembly constituencies in Maharashtra and 90 assembly constituencies in Haryana is likely to be announced soon by the poll panel.
A team of EC officials visited both the states and took stock of preparations there, sources added. They will brief the poll commission about the current arrangements and further steps needed to take in the states. Sources said that the entire polling and counting process in both states may be completed before Diwali.
Sources added that the Assembly elections in Jharkhand will be deferred to December and may be held in phases due to security threat posed by left-wing extremists in the region.
Single-phase elections are likely to be held in Maharashtra while in Haryana, the polls will be held in two to three phases.
There is an indication that the Assembly elections in Jharkhand will be deferred to December and may also be in phases due to the threat posed by left-wing extremism threat and deployment of security forces in the area.
Currently, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power in the three states. The EC has held several rounds of meetings with state entities and home ministry officials on security assessment and deployment of paramilitary forces during elections.
