Election schedule: The Election Commission will announce the schedule for Assembly elections in five states/union territories on Sunday.
The polling committee held a press conference at 4 p.m. to announce the schedule. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry.
The terms of the assemblies of these states/union territories end on various dates in the months of May and June. Under election laws, the Commission must hold elections before the end of the term of the respective legislative assemblies.
A special intensive review of the voter lists has already been undertaken in these four states and one Union Territory, with the final electoral rolls to be published.
This comes after the Election Commission held a crucial meeting in New Delhi earlier this week on Wednesday (March 11) to finalize the election schedule and phased poll plan for the upcoming Assembly elections. The poll body has conducted its final field review in the polling areas, according to an earlier HT report.
The full bench of the commission, led by Chief Election Commissioner Ganesh Kumar along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, reportedly returned to the national capital on Tuesday night after conducting a readiness review in several states.
“The committee will meet on Wednesday to evaluate field reports submitted by the state election machinery and central observers and take a final decision on the number of voting stages, deployment of security forces and the detailed election schedule for all five regions,” a senior official said earlier.
The commission’s visit to West Bengal was the final stage of its nationwide review process ahead of the elections. During the visit, the Election Commission of India held meetings with senior administrative officials, police officials, district magistrates and representatives of political parties to review election preparedness.
Similar meetings were earlier held in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry as part of the standard pre-election assessment process conducted by the poll body.