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Informist, Sunday, Mar. 15, 2026

 

--Poll panel: To hold West Bengal Assembly polls on Apr 23 and Apr 29 

--Poll panel: To hold West Bengal Assembly polls in two phases 

--Poll panel: To hold Tamil Nadu Assembly polls on Apr 23 in one phase 

--Poll panel: To hold Puducherry Assembly polls on Apr 9

--Poll panel: To hold Kerala Assembly polls on Apr 9 in single phase 

--Poll panel: To hold Assam Assembly polls in a single phase on Apr 9 

--Poll panel:Assam, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry vote counting May 4 

 

NEW DELHI – The Election Commission of India Sunday announced elections to the legislative Assemblies of Assam, Puducherry, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Election to 294 Assembly seats in West Bengal will be held in two phases on Apr. 23 and Apr. 29, while voting in Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry will be help on Apr. 9.

 

Voting in Tamil Nadu will be held on Apr 23. Votes for all these states will be counted on May 4, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said. 

 

In all, 824 state Assembly constituencies are going for polls, of which Tamil Nadu has 234 seats, Kerala 140, Assam 126, Puducherry 30, and West Bengal 294 seats. In terms of number of electors, West Bengal leads with 64.4 million voters, followed by Tamil Nadu with 56.7 million, Kerala with 27 million, Assam with 25 million, and Puducherry with 944,000 voters.

 

The terms of the assemblies of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Assam are ending in May, while that of Puducherry is ending in mid-June. With the announcement of the election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has come into effect for the four states and the Union territory of Puducherry. 

 

The Chief Election Commissioner said that there would be 100% webcasting at all the 218,807 polling stations to ensure transparency. In order to avoid long queues, no polling station will have more than 1,200 voters, he said. As a new initiative, booths will be set up outside every polling station where voters can deposit their mobile phones before going inside the station.

 

Kumar said postal ballots would be counted before the votes from the electronic voting machines. "If there is a mismatch between the data of Form 17C -- which is provided to the polling agents of each candidate at the end of voting -- and the EVM data, the voter verifiable paper audit trail slips will be mandatorily counted," he said.

 

The Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal, has moved an impeachment motion against Gyanesh Kumar in both Houses of Parliament. However, Kumar declined to directly comment on the matter. "I would like to make it clear that elections will be violence-free and inducement-free. The Commission will take strict action if anything contrary is reported," he said.

 

On the controversy around the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal, Kumar said the Election Commission was "constitutionally bound" by Article 326 to include electors "who are above 18 years of age, who are citizens of India, and staying in that constituency.

 

"The Commission is undertaking this responsibility in the form of Special Intensive Revision. With regard to comments by some political leaders or parties, the Commission does not wish to engage in such dialogue," Kumar said.  End

 

Reported by Sagar Sen and Asim Khan

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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