Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Poll dates likely to be announced today

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TNT Desk | March 10, 2019

The eagerly awaited dates for General Elections is likely to be announced by today evening.

It may be recalled that the officials from the Election Commission had last week informed that it would announce its schedule for the high-voltage Lok Sabha election, which is likely to be spread over 7-8 phases in April-May, sources said on Thursday.

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With the announcement of polls, the Model Code of Conduct will come into effect from this evening bringing political advertising, campaigning and general conduct of political parties and leaders under the EC's scrutiny.

Sources informed that Election Commission has announced a Press Conference at 5 pm on March 10 at Vigyan Bhawan, Plenary Hall located at Rajpath, New Delhi where it is believed that the dates of the election will be announced. It is generally believed that the Election will be held during the months of April and May.

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There is a strong possibility that the EC may go by the precedent and hold assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh along with the Lok Sabha polls.

Since the Jammu and Kashmir assembly has been dissolved, the EC is bound to hold fresh polls there as well within a six-month period, which will end in May.

While there is a view that the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections can be held along with the Lok Sabha polls, a lot depends on the complex security situation in the state given the heightened tension along the India Pakistan border.

While the Centre and the state administration, being managed by the Centre-appointed governor, are against holding the two elections together, all political parties there favoured simultaneous polls during a meeting with the Election Commission earlier this week.

The J&K assembly's six-year term was to end on March 16, 2021, but it got dissolved after the ruling coalition between the PDP and the BJP fell apart.

The other state assemblies and Lok Sabha have five-year terms.

While the term of the Sikkim assembly ends on May 27, 2019, the terms of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh assemblies end on June 18, June 11 and June 1 respectively.

The Commission has held several review meetings across the country in the past to gear up its machinery.

The required electronic voting machines and paper trail machines are in place to be deployed in nearly 10 lakh poling stations across 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

This is a high probability of the elections being spread across 7-8 phases this time.

In 2004, the Commission had announced four-phase Lok Sabha polls on February 29. While the first date of polling was April 20, the last date was May 10.

In 2009, the EC had announced Lok Sabha poll scheduled on March 2. The five-phase polls began on April 16 and ended on May 13.