West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Puducherry poll dates announced

The election commission of India on Friday announced dates for Assembly Election 2021 in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry. While addressing the press conference, Sunil Arora said paid tributes to the COVID warriors, doctors, paramedics, nurses, researchers, scientists, and all officials on election duty who were located on the frontline. Also Read | Centre raises limits on airfares; domestic flight ticket prices to get costlier [details Inside] He said that in the thick of the pandemic, ECI started test trials with elections to 18 seats to Rajya Sabha. Later, came the challenge of the Bihar elections and it was indeed a watershed moment for ECI, Arora said, adding that it proved to be a litmus test. "A total of 824 assembly constituencies shall be going for polls during these elections. 18.68 crore electors will cast vote at 2.7 lakh polling stations in Assembly election 2021 in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry," he added. Also Read | Coronavirus India: MHA extends existing COVID-19 guidelines [Details Inside]

• Term of Assam assembly up to May 31: No. of Assembly seats 126; SC 8, ST 16;
• Term of Tamil Nadu up to May 24: No. of seats 234, SC 44, ST 2;
• Term of West Bengal Assembly till May 30: Seats 294, SC 68, ST 16;
• Kerala Assembly till June 1: Seats 140, SC 14, ST 2;
• Puducherry: Seats 30, SC 5, ST nil.

"Adequate CAPFs deployment shall be ensured during elections. All critical, vulnerable polling stations identified and an adequate number of CAPFs will be deployed," he said. Dates for Assembly Election 2021 in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry:

• Assam Assembly Election 2021 to be held in 3 phases

1st phase of polling: March 27 2nd phase of polling: April 1 3rd phase of polling: April 6 Date of counting: May 2

• Kerala Assembly election 2021 to go for polling on April 6 while counting of votes will be done on May 2.
• Tamil Nadu Assembly Election 2021 to be held in a single phase on April 6 while counting of votes on May 2.
• Puducherry Assembly Election 2021 to be held on April 6 while counting is scheduled to be held on May 2.
• West Bengal Assembly Election 2021 to go in 8 phases.

1st phase of polling: March 27 2nd phase of polling: April 1 3rd phase of polling: April 6 4th phase of polling: April 10 5th phase of polling: April 17 6th phase of polling: April 22 7th phase of polling: April 26 8th phase of polling: April 29 Guidelines announced by EC for upcoming elections:

• Door-to-door campaigning restricted to 5 people including a candidate
• Roadshows allowed
• Separate norms for suspected Covid-19 patients
• Polling officials to be vaccinated

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