New Delhi, October 3: The election commission on Wednesday announced the dates for the crucial assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The Gujarat elections will be held in two phases in the month of December, chief election commissioner VS Sampath announced.
The dates for polling in Gujarat are December 13 and December 17.
The EC announced one-phase poll in Himachal Pradesh on November 4.
The counting for both the states will be held on December 20.
The CEC announced that the candidates would be required to have a separate bank account for polls.
He announced the setting up of a committee to monitor paid news.
Earlier on Wednesday, the commission finalised the schedule for the assembly polls in the two states in its full meeting chaired by chief election commissioner V S Sampath and attended by election commissioners H S Brahma and Nasim Zaidi and other officials here, EC sources said.
The commission has already held consultations with the home ministry for deployment of central security forces during the elections and with revenue officials for checking the misuse of money power.
More than 35,000 personnel from central paramilitary forces and around 55,000 from state police are likely to be deployed for the Gujarat polls.
Around 9,000 personnel from paramilitary forces and 14,000 from state police are likely to be deployed for Himachal Pradesh elections.
Fearing use of money power in Gujarat, the commission is engaged in identifying the number of "expenditure sensitive" constituencies in Gujarat.
Elections in the two states have to be held by January next as the terms of the current assemblies of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh end on January 17 and 10 respectively.
While Gujarat has 182 assembly constituencies, 13 of which are reserved for SCs and 26 for STs, Himachal Pradesh has 68 assembly seats, with 17 reserved for SCs and 3 for STs.
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