Election Commission expected to announce poll dates for Gujarat, Himachal today
The states have already started witnessing heightened poll pitch.
The Election Commission is set to hold a press briefing on Friday afternoon where it's expected to announce the schedule for the assembly polls for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The briefing is set to be held at 3 pm at New Delhi's Vigyan Bhawan.
Political temperatures are already running high in the states in the anticipation of the assembly elections. Both the states are being ruled by the BJP currently, and the party expects to retain these states. Earlier this year, the BJP had retained four of five states where assembly elections were held. While it won Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa for a consecutive term, the Aam Aadmi Party had secured a huge mandate in Punjab.
In Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, the BJP has been ruling for nearly 27 years. Bhupendra Rajnikant Patel is the incumbent chief minister of the state where Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party is now trying to emerge as a formidable challenger. Amid hectic campaigns, the AAP and the BJP have sparred multiple times here with the controversy surrounding old videos of Gopal Italia being the latest flashpoint between the two rivals. He was briefly detained on Thursday amid protests outside the office of the National Commission for Women.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh has witnessed several visits by PM Modi recently amid inauguration of development projects.
The Congress's Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would be sounding the poll bugle for the grand old party - which has been reviving its grassroot connect with the Bharat Jodo Yatra - in the state on Friday.
