Assembly Elections 2021 Live Updates:
Polls are to be held for 294 seats in West Bengal, 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, 140 seats in Kerala, 126 seats in Assam and 30 seats in Puducherry.Assembly Elections 2021 Dates Live Updates: The Election Commission Friday announced the schedule for upcoming Assembly elections in four states and one Union Territory (Puducherry).
While the state of West Bengal will go to polls in eight phases, Assam will see three-phase voting starting March 27. Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will be held on April 6.
Results for all four states and one Union Territory will be declared on May 2.
Polls are to be held for 294 seats in West Bengal, 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, 140 seats in Kerala, 126 seats in Assam and 30 seats in Puducherry. After the Bihar assembly elections, which were held in November 2020, elections to these states will also be held amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Election Commission is expected to implement a similar protocol for voting.
The election campaign in the poll-bound states has already started with leaders from different political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressing public rallies.
The Election Commission will announce the dates at 4.30 PM today.
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora Friday announced that Election Commission will appoint 2 special observers for the West Bengal polls. "A third observer can be sent if needed," he said.
Two more parliamentary seats will to polls during these upcoming elections:
*Belgaum (Karnataka)
*Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh)
Here's the full election schedule for the 2021 Assembly elections.
Counting of votes for the elections in the four states and one Union Territory (Puducherry) will be held on May 2.
Elections in West Bengal will be held in eight phases, CEC Sunil Arora announced. Voting will be held on– March 27, April 01, April 06, April 10, April 17, April 22, April 26 and April 29. Election results will be announced on May 2.
Elections in the Union Territory of Puducherry will be held in a single phase.
-Date of issue of gazette notification: March 12
-Last date of nomination: March 19
-Scrutiny of nomination: March 20
-Last date of withdrawal of candidature: March 22
-Dates of polling: April 6
-Date of counting: May 2
The election for 234 seats in Tamil Nadu will be held in a single phase. Here's the schedule:
-Date of issue of gazette notification: March 12
-Last date of nomination: March 19
-Scrutiny of nomination: March 20
-Last date of withdrawal of candidature: March 22
-Dates of polling: April 6
-Date of counting: May 2
Here's the election schedule for the state of Kerala. Election here will be held in a single phase.
-Date of issue of gazette notification: March 12
-Scrutiny of nomination: March 20
-Last date of withdrawal of candidature: March 22
-Dates of polling: April 6
-Date of counting: May 2
Elections in Assam to be held in three phases starting from March 27. Results will be declared on May 2.
The Model Code of Conduct will come into force immediately after the announcement of the election dates, Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner says at the press conference.
"Adequate CAPFs deployment shall be ensured during elections. All critical, vulnerable polling stations identified and an adequate number of CAPFs will be deployed," CEC Sunil Arora was quoted as saying by ANI.
Guidelines to be followed for the upcoming elections:
*Door-to-door campaigning to be restricted to five persons including candidate.
*Roadshows allowed
*Separate norms for suspected Covid-19 patients.
*Polling officials to be vaccinated.
During the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that a total of 824 assembly constituencies will be going for polls during the upcoming elections. "As many as 18.68 crore electors will cast vote at 2.7 lakh polling stations in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry," Arora said.
"In the thick of the pandemic, ECI started test trials with elections to 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," says Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner.
Paying tributes to Covid warriors, Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner of India 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: Sunil Arora Chief Election Commissioner of India."
Election Commission of India announces poll schedule for 4 states and one Union Territory (Puducherry).
The Election Commission will shortly announce poll dates for the states of West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry. EC officials have reached the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.
The Tamil Nadu government has also announced a new gold loan waiver scheme. The announcement comes just hours before the announcement of poll dates by the Election Commission.
Ahead of the Election Commission's announcement of poll dates, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday announced a hike in wages of daily wage workers under the West Bengal Urban Employment Scheme.
"I am pleased to announce a HIKE in the wages of daily wage workers under WB Urban Employment Scheme...a total of 56,500 workers (40,500 unskilled, 8000 semi-skilled, 8000 skilled) will benefit from this. These wages are in parity with rural workers’ enhanced pay (MNREGA unskilled & semi-skilled). Budget provision for this step has been made available for both FY21 an FY22," Banerjee tweeted.
In the run-up to the upcoming assembly elections in the state, BJP chief J P Nadda Thursday launched the ‘Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowdsourcing campaign’ in Kolkata to seek suggestions from people in West Bengal. State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and party’s National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya were also present on the occasion.
After launching the campaign, Nadda said the BJP is making efforts to work toward making ‘Sonar Bangla’, with the inclusion of contributions of Swami Vivekanand, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Syama Prasad Mukherjee and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in the prestigious history of West Bengal.