MAHARASTRA & HARYANA GO TO POLLS

Assembly elections will be held in Maharashtra and Haryana in a single phase on October 15 that may well be the first for the 'Modi wave' after the Lok Sabha polls.
Counting of votes in the two states will take place on October 19, the Election Commission announced today.
Giving details of the poll chedule, Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath said apart from the elections in the two states, bye-elections will also be held on the same day in five assembly seats in five states--Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
Bye-elections to two Lok Sabha constituencies of Beed in Maharashtra and Kandhamal in Odisha will also be held on October 15 and counting of votes in all the seats will also take place on October 19.
Haryana is now ruled by Congress while Congress-NCP coalition runs the Maharashtra government.
The BJP and its allies in the NDA did very well in both the states in the May Lok Sabha elections. In Maharashtra, the NDA won 42 of the 48 seats while in Haryana the BJP won 7 of the 10 seats.
However, in the Assembly bye-elections in Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, the BJP suffered a jolt, especially in Bihar, where the JD(U)-RJD alliance got the better of the saffron party.
Tomorrow, another round of by elections is being held in three Lok Sabha and 33 Assembly seats in 10 states.
The Beed Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following the death of senior BJP leader Union minister Gopinath Munde in a road accident here in June and the Kandhamal seat following the demise of BJP MP Hemendra Chandra Singh a few days ago.
The Model Code of Conduct comes into effect immediately in Maharashtra and Haryana and in all the districts where bypolls are being held, Sampath said.
Notification for polls will be issued on September 20 and last date for filing nomination is September 27 for all seats except Kandhamal for which the notification will be on September 19 and last date of nomination is September 26.
Asked about elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which is witnessing worst-ever floods, Sampath said the Commission was watching the situation very closely and "a decision will be taken after things come to some shape".
The term of 90-member Haryana assembly expires on October 27 while that of Maharashtra, which has 288 seats, ends on November 8.
"We still have time for Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
The term of the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly ends on January 3 next year, while that of the 87-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly expires on January 19.