Election schedule for Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland announced by EC
The schedule for assembly elections has been announced by the Election Commission of India to three North East states—Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland on Thursday.
While polling for assembly elections in Tripura will be held on 18 February, the states of Nagaland and Meghalaya will go to polls on 27 February.
Counting for all three states will be held on 3 March.
“Model code of conduct comes into force now in all three states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland,” said chief election commissioner Achal Kumar Joti during a media interaction to give details of the poll schedule.
“VVPATs along with EVMs (electronic voting machines) during the polling in state, VVPAT slips will be matched with CUs. Limit of expenditure is Rs20 lakh per candidate in all the three states,” said Joti.
The terms of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura end on 6, 13 and 14 March, respectively.
While the Congress is in power in Meghalaya under chief minister Mukul Sangma, Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) is incumbent in Nagaland under chief minister T.R. Zeliang and CPM’s chief minister Manik Sarkar has been in power for four out of five terms in Tripura.
Tripura is the only state other than Kerala where the CPM-led Left Front is in power and the party is battling anti-incumbency in what is seen as a first multi-cornered contest in the state, which includes Congress and newer political players like BJP and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC).
-PTC News
