The Election Commission of India is going to announce the dates for the upcoming set of state assembly elections on January 4. The EC will announce the dates for elections to all the five states – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa.
The EC will conduct a press conference at 12:00 pm where Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi will announce a list of dates including the last date of filing nominations, phase and dates of voting and the date of counting.
A senior EC official earlier had said that the terms of all the five states are ending in coming months and hence, the polling dates will be announced on January 4. He said, ” The EC’s preparations have been going on for a while now and the schedule could be announced as early as Wednesday. All the five states, including Uttar Pradesh, will go to polls together”.
Last week, in a letter written to the cabinet secretary and chief secretaries of all the five states, the EC asked to keep the administrative setup ready for a smooth run of the model electoral code of conduct for political parties, which would come in action once the poll dates are announced.
The terms of the legislative assembly in Uttar Pradesh is going to end on May 27, Uttarakhand is due to expire on March 26 while that of Goa, Manipur and Punjab expires on March 18.
Talking about the assembly strength of the five, UP has 403 assembly seats, Goa has 40, Manipur has 60, Punjab has 117 and Uttarakhand has 70 seats.
On the other hand, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs will look after the security conditions in the states and will be deploying 85,000 security personnel. As conveyed by top MHA officials under the leadership of Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, the ministry will provide 750 companies of paramilitary forces for the smooth conduct of polls in all the 5 states.
