New Delhi: The year 2017 is crucial for all political parties with India set to elect its new president and vice-president, besides seven states going to the assembly polls.
The Election Commission will be announcing the poll schedules for Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur this week. Prime minister Narendra Modi is addressing a rally at Lucknow. UP, today.
Assembly polls will be held in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh this year-end.
The Election Commission has clarified that the model code of conduct won’t be applicable to the general budget, which would be presented after the announcement of poll schedules for five states.
The New Year also marks the end of the 12th five-year plan, the railway budget, and the tradition of tabling the general budget on the last working day of February.
The Central government had scrapped the planning commission, clubbed the railway budget with the general budget, which itself has been advanced to February 1.
Of the five states going to the polls early this year, Congress is in power in Uttarakhand and Manipur, BJP in Goa, Akali Dal-BJP combine in Punjab and Samajwadi Party in UP.
For the BJP, the UP assembly election is critical, as it has to win most of the 403 seats to bag enough numbers of MLAs before electing the president.
President Pranab Mukherjee’s term is set to end on July 25, and Hamid Ansari’s on August 10.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance currently does not have enough numbers to elect its representative as the president. It needs 5,49,000 votes to win the presidential polls, but is now short by 1,82,168 votes.
As many as 4,896 people’s representatives will be electing the president. Each MP’s vote has a value of 708, while the value of MLAs’ votes differs in each State.
The Assembly polls in Gujarat will be crucial for both the BJP and Congress. BJP is eyeing a fourth consecutive term, and Congress is yet to be become a formidable opponent in that State.
Certain decisions in the financial sector and foreign policy will have a major say in the country’s political milieu in 2017.
The economic slowdown that followed the demonetization is one among them. Announcements and sops in the General Budget is yet another one. The indirect taxation system in the country will undergo a major change when the proposed Goods and Services Tax come into effect in September.
Indo-US relation will be a crucial point of political discussion this year. With the US inaugurating its new president, Donald Trump, this month, the road ahead seems unpredictable. Trump’s views on immigration and outsourcing are against India’s interest, and his approach to Pakistan is yet to be seen.
