E-Paper
Election Commission to announce assembly poll schedules, presser at 4 pm
Assembly elections are set to be held in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry.
Election Schedule: The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the Assembly elections in five states/ union territory on Sunday.
Assembly elections are set to be held in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry. The poll body has convened a press conference at 4 pm to release the schedule.
The terms of the assemblies of these states/ union territory are ending on different dates in May and June. Under election laws, the Commission is required to conduct elections before the terms of the respective legislative assemblies expire.
Special intensive revision of the voters' lists in these four states and one union territory have already been conducted, with final electoral rolls published.
This comes after the Election Commission held a crucial meeting in New Delhi earlier this week on Wednesday (March 11) to finalise the election schedule and phase-wise polling plan for the upcoming Assembly polls. The poll body had conducted its final ground review in the poll-bound regions, according to an earlier HT report.
The full bench of the Commission, led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, reportedly returned to the national capital Tuesday night after conducting its multi-state preparedness review.
“The Commission will meet on Wednesday to assess field reports submitted by state election machinery and central observers and take a final call on the number of polling phases, deployment of security forces and the detailed election schedule for all five regions,” a senior official had said earlier.
The Commission’s visit to West Bengal marked the final leg of its nationwide review exercise ahead of the elections. During the visit, the ECI held meetings with senior administrative and police officials, district magistrates and representatives of political parties to review the preparedness for polls.
Similar meetings were held earlier in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry as part of the poll body's standard pre-election assessment process.
