Election dates announced for five states; these are main issues

The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday announced the dates for the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram Assembly polls. While Chhattisgarh will go to the polls in two phases on November 12 and 20, the Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram Assembly elections will be held on November 28.

Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on December 7, announced Chief Election Commissioner (CEO) OP Rawat. Counting of votes will be held across all the five states on December 11, he said.

Main issues in these states:

#Farmers’ suicide 

#Protest against SC/ST Act 

#Unemployment 

#Standard of education

#Hailstorm 

#Condition of hospitals 

#Drought 

Facing criticism from different parties over allegedly deferring its press conference to suit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Ajmer, the Election Commission of India (EC) on Saturday said it was done to facilitate the journalists and poll body officers, who complained of their inability to attend the press conference at a very short span of time.

"It wasn't deliberately done to accommodate a political rally; we got numerous calls from journalists and polls officials after we announced at 10 am that a presser will be held at 12.30 pm," EC sources told news agency ANI. The press conference was earlier scheduled to take place at 12.30 pm, but was postponed to 3.00 pm.