The Election Commission on Friday announced the schedule for the assembly polls to be held in the four states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and union territory Puducherry.
Announcing the dates, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that around 17 crore voters will cast their votes in assembly elections in the poll bound states and union territory for a total of 824 assembly seats.
The terms of these five assemblies will end in April and May.
The Model Code of Conduct will be enforced with immediate effect and the governments of the poll-bound states as well as the Centre would not be able to announce any new schemes or programmes that may influence the voters.
The assembly elections in Assam for 126 assembly seats will be held in two phases. The first phase will be held on April 4 and the second phase on April 11.
In West Bengal, the polling for 294 assembly seats will be held in six phases starting from April 4 to May 5.
The first phase would take place in two parts- April 4 and 11. The second phase polling will be held on April 17, third on April 21, fourth on April 15, fifth on April 30 and sixth on May 5.
In Kerala, voting for 140 assembly seats would be held in a single phase on May16.
In Tamil Nadu, voting for 234 assembly seats would also be held in a single phase on May 16.
In Puducherry, voting for 30 assembly seats would also be held on May16.
The counting of votes in all the poll bound states will take place on May 19.
