The Election Commission of India is expected to announce the dates for the Lok Sabha elections in the first week of March, the sources said on Friday, 18 January. The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on 3 June.
The EC is in the process of deciding the number of phases and the months in which polling would be held, the sources told news agency PTI.
The charting of the phases would also depend on the availability of security forces and other requirements, the sources said, adding the announcement of the mega exercise is likely to be made in first week of March.
However, according to ANI, the sources said that the general elections would be held in six to seven phases.
Assembly Elections to Coincide With Lok Sabha?
There is a possibility that the EC may go by the precedent and hold the 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 within six months.
It was dissolved in November 2018 and the upper limit ends in May. The poll panel may hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir along with the Lok Sabha polls as well. But it can be held before that too as much depends on the complex security situation there, they said.
In normal circumstances, the J&K Assembly’s six-year term was to end on 16 March 2021. The other state Assemblies and the Lok Sabha have a five-year term.
While the term of the Sikkim Assembly ends on 27 May 2019, the terms of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh Assemblies end on 18 June, 11 June and 1 June, respectively.
Previous Election Trends
- 2004: The first date of polls was 20 April, the last date was 10 May.
- 2009: The five-phase polls began on 16 April and ended on 13 May.
- 2014: The first-phase polling was on 7 April, the last phase was on 12 May.
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