Himachal Pradesh will vote for a new government on November 12 and votes will be counted on December 8, the Election Commission said on Friday, in an announcement that surprisingly sidestepped Gujarat, which was also expected to hold polls by the end of the year.
To a raft of questions about the unexpected move, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said they considered various factors, including "convention", the gap between last dates of the two states' assembly terms, and weather, to arrive at the decision.
The term of the Himachal Pradesh assembly, which has 68 seats with 35 as the majority, ends on January 8. The term of the Gujarat assembly ends on February 18. Usually, when these terms end within six months of each other, elections are held together.
"There is a gap of 40 days between the end of the assemblies of the two states. According to the rules, it should be at least 30 days so that one result doesn't impact the other," Mr Kumar said, denying any rules had been violated.
"There are a number of factors, like weather. We want to hold the Himachal elections before the onset of snow," he explained, adding that the Commission had held consultations with "various stakeholders".
The Himachal Pradesh assembly election dates were announced at a press conference in Delhi.
This is only the second time in recent memory that elections in the two states will be held separately.
Last time, in 2017, the Election Commission had faced criticism for separating the elections, with the opposition accusing it of doing so to allow Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce last-minute sops for his home state.
Under fire, the then Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti had defended the delay, saying it ensured that the state did not spend a long period under the Model Code of Conduct without "justification" and that the state government had requested for it because of rains and flooding.
This time, in another change, the period for the Model Code of Conduct - which bans the announcement of government measures that could influence voters - has been reduced to 57 days from 70 days.
The long gap of one month between the voting and the results in Himachal fuelled speculation that the Election Commission was keeping a window to announce elections in Gujarat soon and had only deferred it for now.
In the last Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, the BJP won 44 seats and Congress 21. Independents scored two and the CPI(M) won one seat.
In percentage terms, the BJP won 48.79 per cent of the total valid votes, followed by the Congress (41.68 per cent) and Independents (6.34 per cent).
This time, Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hopes to make the usually two-sided contest a triangular fight by foraying into the Himalayan state that borders Punjab, which it won earlier this year.
More than 55 lakh people are eligible to vote in the polls, including 1.86 lakh first-time voters, 1.22 lakh aged above 80 and around 1,100 who are above 100 years of age.
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