COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Nominations open in two states

Nominations opened in two states today as part of the exercise to hold election to the 12th Lok Sabha and five state assemblies.

Tripura and Meghalaya are the states where nominations commenced for simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and assemblies. Nominations will remain open till January 27.

The President issued the notification for the parliamentary polls in these states, which have two seats each, and the respective governors for the assemblies, each of which have a strength of 60 members.

Elections are being held for all the 543 elective Lok Sabha seats and five state assemblies. Besides, by-elections will be held to 21 assembly seats spread over nine states and Delhi and Pondicherry.

The other states going to simultaneous assembly polls are Gujarat (182 seats), Himachal Pradesh (68) and Nagaland (60).

Polling will be held in four phases on February 16, 22 and 28 and March 7.

Notifications will be issued on three more days -- on Wednesday, January 28 and February 10 -- setting in motion the election process in other parts of the country.

The notification process is somewhat cumbersome this time, with the notifications on the first three days partly covering some phases of polling and the last one pertaining to elections in three Lok Sabha constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.

As many as 222 Lok Sabha constituencies will go to polls in the first phase, 186 in the second and 132 in the third.

Barring Meghalaya and three constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir, counting of votes polled in the election will be taken up on March 8.

Counting in Meghalaya will commence on February 23 as the term of the state assembly expires on March 1. In Baramulla, Anantnag and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir it begins on March 9.

Many political parties have demanded that counting be advanced to a date immediately after the completion of the third phase of polling on February 28. This would have no bearing on the final outcome, they argued.

Twentyone of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from Andhra Pradesh, 34 of the 54 from Bihar, 18 of the 28 from Karnataka, 14 of the 39 from Tamil Nadu and 52 of the 85 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in the first phase and the remaining in the second on February 22.

Polling in all the Lok Sabha constituencies in Mizoram (one), Nagaland (one), and Pondicherry (one) will be held in the second phase and in all those in Gujarat (26), Kerala (20), Himachal Pradesh (four), Goa (two), and Daman and Diu (one) in the third phase on February 28.

Maharashtra (48), West Bengal (42), Madhya Pradesh (40), and Orissa (21) will also have a two-phase polling, on February 22 and 28.

Jammu and Kashmir is the only state to have polling spread over three days. Of its six constituencies, Jammu will go to polls on February 16, Srinagar and Ladakh on February 28 and Baramulla, Anantnag and Udhampur on March 7.

The 21 assembly by-elections are for Hanamkonda and Madhira in Andhra Pradesh, Fatehabad in Haryana, Cottur, Awekal (SC), and Dharwad Rural in Karnataka. Mala, Vaikom (SC) and Chathannur in Kerala, Chandla in Madhya Pradesh, Khundrakpam, Khatrigao, Tudubi, Coonoor (SC) and Aruppukottai in Tamil Nadu, Galsi in West Bengal, Osbudu (SC) in Pondicherry and Ghonda in Delhi.

The entire poll process is to be completed by March 12 so that the new House can be constituted by March 15 as directed by the President while dissolving the 11th Lok Sabha.

EARLIER REPORT:
When India goes to vote

Tell us what you think of this report