EC Rules Out Clubbing 2018 Assembly Polls With 2019 Lok Sabha Election

The Election Commission has decided to follow the law and established practice and conduct the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram assembly polls as one round, finishing before mid-December, when the Mizoram assembly’s term runs out. The decision all but ends suggestions from some political quarters that these polls be merged with the Lok Sabha election due in April-May next year.

Room for Maharashtra and Haryana

BJP president Amit Shah’s letter to the Law Commission in favour of simultaneous polls is now seen mainly as a way to keep the debate going. Commission sources, however, did not rule out holding the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, due in November 2019, together with the general election and five other state polls in April-May 2019. A senior official said this would be possible if the governments in the two states dissolved their assemblies by January.

Preparations and machines

The commission has already made progress on the four-state round, completing first reviews by deputy election commissioners and holding talks with the home ministry on deploying central forces. O P Rawat, the Chief Election Commissioner, along with fellow commissioners Sunil Arora and Ashok Lavasa, was expected to visit the poll-bound states from the first week of September.

Rawat said the logistics would allow one or two more states to be added to the general election, since enough EVMs and VVPATs were available. Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Telangana and Arunachal Pradesh are already due to elect their assemblies in that round. “We have reserve EVMs and VVPATs to accomodate a couple of extra state polls in the General Election,” he said, explaining that 15 lakh VVPATs were needed for the Lok Sabha and five state polls while 17.4 lakh would be available.

That could allow simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and up to 7-8 assemblies in April-May 2019, provided any additional states dissolved their assemblies by January 2019, giving the commission time before it announces the general election in early March.

What happened next

The Congress won Madhya Pradesh (114 seats), Rajasthan (99) and Chhattisgarh (68), while the Mizo National Front won Mizoram with 26 seats and Zoramthanga became chief minister.

Originally published on 16 August 2018. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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