The Election Commission is all set to hold a press conference on Friday afternoon where it is expected to announce the election schedule for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The briefing will be held at 3:00 PM at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Political temperatures in the states are already rising in anticipation of parliamentary elections. Both the states are currently ruled by the BJP and the party expects to retain these states. Earlier this year, the BJP retained four of the five states where assembly elections were held.
While the Aam Aadmi Party won Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa for consecutive terms, it secured a huge mandate in Punjab. In Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP has been in power for almost 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 here, AAP and BJP have clashed several times with the Gopal Italia old videos controversy being the latest flash point between the two rivals. On Thursday, he was briefly detained during protests outside the office of the National Commission for Women.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh witnessed several visits by Prime Minister Modi recently amid the inauguration of development projects. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of the Congress will ring the polls for the grand old party – which is rekindling its grass roots association with the Bharat Jodo Yatra – in the state on Friday.
