Highlights
- Tamil Nadu: All 294 seats to go to the polls on April 6
- Kerala: All 140 seats to go to the polls on April 6
- Puducherry: All 30 seats to go to the polls on April 6
- Assam: Voting in 3 phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6.
- West Bengal: Voting in 8 phases on March 27, April 1, 6, 10, 17, 22, 26 and 29.
- Counting for elections in all states on May 2
New Delhi: As many as 824 assembly constituencies will go to the polls in four states - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam - and the Union Territory of Puducherry, Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora announced on Friday.
Elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will be held in a single phase on April 6. The Assam assembly elections will be held in 3 phases - on March 27, April 1 and April 6. The polls in West Bengal will be held in eight phases - on March 27, April 1, 6, 10, 17, 22, 26 and 29.
Counting of all votes will be held on May 2.
"Nearly 186 million electors will vote at 270,000 polling stations for 824 seats in four assembly elections," Sunil Arora said addressing media persons here today.
He also said the Bihar Assembly polls last year in November amid the COVID-19 pandemic was a watershed moment and proved to be a litmus test for the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Addressing mediapersons Arora said: "In the thick of the pandemic, ECI started test trials with elections of 18 seats to Rajya Sabha. After that, came the challenge of the Bihar elections, it was indeed a watershed moment for ECI. It proved to be a litmus test. Voting turnout was 57.34 per cent exceeding the 2015 Assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state."
He applauded the frontline workers, healthcare workers and ECI officials for performing election duty during the COVID-19 times last year.
All poll officials will be vaccinated against COVID-19 before elections," Arora said
"Our tributes to the COVID warriors, doctors, paramedics, nurses, researchers, scientists and all our officials on election duty who are located on the frontline," said Arora.
Guidelines
He also announced guidelines for the upcoming elections.
These include restricting door-to-door campaigning to five people including the candidate, Polling officials to be vaccinated and separate norms for suspected COVID-19 patients.
The terms of the legislative assemblies of five states - West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry - will come to an end either in May or in June.
