The Election Commission of India has announced the dates for assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, which will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in these states.
In Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, the assembly polls will be held on April 19, when the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections will be held. Andhra Pradesh and Odisha assembly elections will be held on May 13 simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls there.
In Andhra Pradesh, last date for nominations will be April 25, nominations scrutiny on April 26, last date for withdraw of nominations will be April 29 and polling will be on May 13. There are 175 assembly constituencies in the state.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar announced that by-elections will also be held for 26 assembly seats in states such as Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
The poll verdict will be announced on June 4 after counting is completed. Though there were rumours that the assembly elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir, no announcement was made by the poll panel.
Polling to be held in 7 phases, counting on June 4
The polling for the Lok Sabha election will begin from April 19 and it will be conducted in 7 phases, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said announcing the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
As per the schedule announced on Saturday, the counting of votes will be done on June 4. Rajiv Kumar said byelections to 26 assembly constituencies and four state assembly elections –Sikkim, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh would be held along with parliament polls in the respective states.
“We are committed to give the nation a truly festive, democratic environment. The term of the 17th Lok Sabha is due to expire on june 16,2024. The terms of the Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim are also due to expire in June 2024. Elections are due in Jammu and Kashmir,” Kumar said.
The five-year term of the current Lok Sabha ends on June 16. The term of the state assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha is set to expire on June 24. With the announcement of dates, the model code of conduct comes into force immediately.
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal will vote in seven phases starting from April 19, while Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir will vote in five phases. Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand will vote in four phases and in three phases in Chhattisgarh and Assam. Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tripura and Manipur will go to vote in two phases.
Single day polling will be held in 22 states and Union territories. These are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Ladakh, Dadra and Nagar, Daman and Haveli and Diu.
There are 97 crore registered voters and over 10.5 lakh polling stations would be set up for this election, CEC said. Rajiv Kumar added there are 1.82 crore first-time voters over 1 crore polling officials and security staff are involved. 55 lakhs EVMs will be used in this election and all minimum basic faciltiies will be available in polling stations, Kumar said.
The CEC said there are four challenges – muscle, money, misinformation and model code violations. He added adequate number of CAPF personnel will be deployed. Drone-based checking will be conducted and NPCL would monitor transactions through digital wallets, Kumar said.
“Cash movement worth around Rs 3,400 crore was restricted in the last 11 state assembly elections in Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Tripura. This shows an increase of 835 pc”, Kumar said. The CEC appealed to political parties to maintain decorum during campaigning.
Elections are being held in 543 constituencies across the country. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the ruling National Democratic Alliance won in 353 seats with BJP alone winning in 303 seats. The Congress won only 52 seats.
