Filing of nominations begins today

141 parliamentary constituencies to go to polls on April 20

The smell of elections will be palpable in the air from today when the filing of nominations will open for 141 parliamentary constituencies spread over 15 states in the five-phased polls scheduled to go to polls on 20 April.

Candidates will have time till March 31 to file their nominations, submit the list of their assets and income-tax returns to the returning officers.

Nominations for the constituencies going to polls in the first phase will close on March 31 and withdrawal of candidature will be on April 3 and 5. This will leave standing in the field, only the serious candidates.

The ones left standing after May 13, when counting will take place - will be the victors.

The Election Commission will set the process rolling with the issue of the notifications by the President for the first stage of polls on April 20.

All the Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Chhattisgarh and portions of Bihar, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam and Manipur go to the polls on April 20.

The final and definitive list of candidates who will be competing will be available after 5 pm on April 3 and 5.

Notifications will also be issued tomorrow for 147 out of 294 seats in Andhra Pradesh Assembly, 120 out of 224 seats in Karnataka House and 77 of the 147 seats in Orissa Assembly.

Nearly 675 million voters are eligible to cast their votes, which will be for the first time across the country through electronic voting machines to elect a 543-member Lok Sabha.

The massive electoral exercise will be held in five phases"" April 20, 22, 26 and May 5 and 10.

The dust and din of the campaigning will start in real earnest after March 31, when the names of candidates, cleared by their parties, will be officially announced, they will get the prized party certificates declaring them to be the official candidates and will descend in the field.

The heat created by the campaign then will rival the heat of the summer.

Several questions are yet to be answered. Will the Opposition field a joint candidate against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lucknow? Who will contest against Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani? Will the Congress-PDP combine manage a harmonious partnership in the crucial Jammu and Kashmir? Who will contest against the Gandhis in Uttar Pradesh?

The subtext of these elections will also be the Assembly polls. The most crucial state to go the polls will be Andhra Pradesh (April 20 and 26).

The government that comes to power in Andhra Pradesh will have a significance influence on the chances of the National Democratic Alliance forming a government at the Centre.