Odisha will go to polling from May 25 in four phases in the upcoming Assembly elections, announced the Election Commission on Saturday. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
According to the schedule announced by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, 28 Assembly seats would go for voting in the fourth phase on May 13, polling will be held in the next 35 constituencies on May 20. In the sixth phase, 42 constituencies would go for voting on May 25 and the same would be done for 42 more constituencies on June 1.
The counting of all constituencies will be done on June 4 and the date before which the elections shall be completed is June 4. The dates of issue of the gazette notification are from April 18 to May 7 in all four phases respectively. The last dates for making nominations in each consecutive phase are from April 25 to May 7.
The Election Commission declared the schedule for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 on Saturday. The General Elections 2024 for the 18th Lok Sabha will be held in 7 phases, starting from April 19. The results will be declared on June 4.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar along with newly-appointed Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu announced the much-anticipated poll dates for the 2024 parliamentary polls. With this, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force.
The first phase of the elections will be held on April 19 in 21 states and Union Territories, the second phase will commence on April 26 in 13 states/UTs, third phase on May 7 in 12 states/UTs, the fourth phase on May 13 in 10 states/UTs, fifth phase on May 20 in 8 states/UTs, sixth phase on May 25 in 7 states/UTs and the final phase on June 1 in 8 states/UTs.
The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on June 16 and a new House has to be constituted before that. The term of the assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha is coming to an end on various dates in June.
Announcing the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, “We have a total of 96.8 crore electors. We have over 97 crore registered voters, 10.5 lakh polling stations, 1.5 crore polling officials and security staff, 55 lakh EVMs, and 4 lakh vehicles. There are 19.47 crore voters between the age group of 20-29 years”.
Emphasising that there is no place for violence in the elections, the CEC said that the ECI will take strict action against the perpetrators. “There is no place for bloodbath and violence in the elections…From wherever we will receive the information of violence, we will take action against them…” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
