State Polls In Maharashtra, Haryana On October 21, Results On October 24: Highlights

State polls in Haryana and Maharashtra will be held on October 21 and results will be announced on October 24, the Election Commission said today. 

The model code of conduct will be now in place in these states, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said. 

In 2014, the elections in Maharashtra and Haryana took place in October. Both the states are under the BJP rule. In Maharashtra, however, the BJP is ruling the state in alliance with Shiv Sena.

Dates for polls in Jharkhand, the third state where elections are due, will not be announced today.

Here are the highlights from the Election Commission press conference.

• Election Commission is privileged to play role in democracy, said Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora. 
• Haryana has 1.82 crore registered voters and Maharashtra has 8.94 crore voters, he said. 
• The five-year term of the Legislative Assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra expires on November 2 and November 9, respectively.
• Two special expenditure observers will be sent to Maharastra for assembly elections. 
• "Election campaigns impose an environmental cost upon us. We appeal to political parties to avoid use of plastic and use only environment-friendly material in their campaigns," Mr Arora was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. 
• The last date to submit nominations for both the states is October 4. The last date to withdraw the nominations is October 7. 
• The Election Commission also announced schedule for bypolls in 64 seats. In Karnataka, by-elections will be held in 15 seats where the MLAs were disqualified.