Lok Sabha polls likely to begin early April

This summer's general elections to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha are likely to be a five-to-six-phase affair starting from the second week of April and ending by mid-May. Maoist-hit areas and some of the warmer states are expected to go to polls first.

Updated on: Mar 3, 2014, 08:54:25 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

This summer's general elections to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha are likely to be a five-to-six-phase affair starting from the second week of April and ending by mid-May. Maoist-hit areas and some of the warmer states are expected to go to polls first.

Election Commission (EC) officials said they were looking at adding one more phase this time to enable adequate security arrangements in the districts affected by Left-wing extremism, Kashmir and the northeast. If that happens, it would be longest-ever Lok Sabha polls.

The much-awaited announcement for the high-voltage elections and assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim would be made in the middle of this week, EC sources said, adding that the poll watchdog would firm up the schedule in the next couple of days.

"The elections can be announced anytime after the Prime Minister returns from Myanmar on Tuesday," an EC source said. PM Manmohan Singh will leave for Myanmar on Monday to attend a summit of Bay of Bengal regional countries. Normally, the elections are not announced when Prime Minister is not in the country.

Read: Who will bag middle class vote in Lok Sabha elections: Modi or Rahul?

With the election announcement, the code of conduct for parties and governments – Centre and states — will come into force. Once the code sets in, the commission can transfer officials and prohibit the governments from making any announcement.

The commission, which has completed consultations with the home ministry as well as security and electoral officers, would probably like to commence polls from around April 10 in some Maoist-hit and warmer states.

The voting process for 814 million voters — 97 million more than 2009 —would end by mid-May as the EC wants to avoid peak summer heat. The counting of the votes would happen before May 20 so that the 543-member Lok Sabha can be constituted before June 1, EC sources said.

In 2009, the five-phase polling that started from mid-April ended on May 13 and votes were counted on May 16.

Changes in the probable schedule was not ruled out as weather, harvest season and availability of personnel would play an important role in final decision by the three elections commissioners in the next few days.

"Dates can be altered a bit, but there is a little possibility in advancing the polls as there are Supreme Court rulings on election scheduling," an EC official added.

EC officials also ruled out separate elections for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, saying a schedule for the 294-member assembly of Andhra Pradesh, whose bifurcation was notified on Saturday, would be declared.

In addition, elections for 147-member Odisha and 32-member Sikkim state assemblies will also be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.

Read: Here is Arvind Kejriwal's gameplan for LS polls

Half of the 110 million personnel (1.1 crore) to be deployed for elections would be securitymen to ensure free and fair polls at over 8 lakh polling stations, an increase of about 10 % as compared with that in the 2009 polls.

For the first time in general elections, the voters will have the choice to reject all candidates in fray by pressing 'none of the above' (NOTA) button on the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

The EC will also experiment with verifiable paper trail system with EVMs in about 10,000 polling booths. In all, about 1.5 million EVMs will be used across India.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk Hunger Strike LIVE and more across India.