Is the Uttar Pradesh assembly election being put off till April?

Is election to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly being delinked from the four other states where elections are due before March 26?

Since the UP Assembly was constituted on May 28, 2012 (although Akhilesh Yadav had been sworn in as chief minister on March 15), the Election Commission (ECI) can afford to hold the election in UP later.

But elections to Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand Assemblies have to be held before the term of the respective assemblies expire on March 18, 2017 ( Punjab, Manipur and Goa) and March 26 ( Uttarakhand).

The speculation has been fuelled by the ECI’s failure to notify the poll schedules, which was expected last week.

When the ECI ordered the UP Government to cancel the schedule of the Board examinations announced on December 9 (between February 16 and March 20), it was anticipated that the election would be held in different phases in February-March along with the four other states.

While UP Board officials were invited for discussions at the ECI on December 15, fresh exam schedules have not yet been announced by the Board. If the election is actually extended then the original schedule of the examination could be re-notified with minor modifications.

But the hype being created over the Prime Minister’s public rally in Lucknow on January 2, 2017 has fuelled speculation that the election in UP can be deferred till April. Because the Model Code of Conduct would have kicked in with the poll notification and prevented the Prime Minister from announcing sops for the people in his Lucknow rally.

Unconfirmed reports from sources saying that Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal held a meeting with select advertising agencies and asked them to be ready to execute campaigns at short notice around March 20 have also contributed to the speculation.

Besides, with the union budget also preponed to February 1, 2017 there are expectations that the Government would utilise the opportunity to announce populist schemes to assuage people hurt by currency ban. By then the Government hopes the shortage of currency would ease and make it easier for the BJP to face the people.