New Delhi: Lok Sabha polls will be held in five phases from April 16 to May 13, the Election Commission announced on Monday.
The five phased polls will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh while Bihar will have four-phased elections, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami told a press conference in New Delhi.
Maharashtra and West Bengal will witness three phased polls while Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Punjab will have elections in two phases.
Remaining 15 states and seven union territories will have one-day polling.
The counting of votes will take place on May 16 and the 15th Lok Sabha will be constituted by June 2.
In the first phase, 124 constituencies will go to polls on April 16. 141 constituencies will witness balloting in the second phase on April 23, 107 seats in third phase on April 30, 85 seats in fourth phase on May 7 and 86 constituencies in the last phase on May 13. Elections to Assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.
Photo electoral rolls will be used for the first time in 522 out of the 543 constituencies, Gopalaswami said.
499 constituencies have been redrawn in the delimitation exercise.
Delimitation could not be undertaken in Andhra, Assam, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland, Gopalaswami said.
At least 71.4 crore will be the number of eligible voters, an increase of 4.3 crore over the 2004 figure of 67.1 crore.
The Election Commission Monday expressed serious concern over the rising use of "money power" in the election process.
While announcing the dates for the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami said: "We have taken serious note of illegal use of money power, and the polling officers have been told to strictly monitor the expenditure."
He appealed to the candidates not to exceed their expense limits.
When India elects a new parliament in April-May, one polling station in Gujarat will have just one voter and will be located in Junagadh district in Gir forests, home to the Asiatic lion.
There will also be one polling station for two voters in Chhattisgarh, and three stations in Arunachal Pradesh will have three electors each.
The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also welcomed the finalisation of dates and expressed their faith in the Election Commission in holding a free and fair exercise.
"We have confidence that on May 16 when the counting would be done, the country would get a new government under the leadership of L.K. Advani," said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, confident that the people would vote for change after five years of the United Progressive Alliance government.
Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan she said: "We welcome it and I am glad that they have done it unitedly. I am sure that elections would be concluded in free and fair manner."
The three-member poll panel has been embroiled in a controversy with reports of a tussle between Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami and Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.
Election officials also studied local holidays, religious festivals and annual school examination before deciding the polling dates.
This would be the first general election after the delimitation of the Lok Sabha constituencies.
He said electoral rolls had been updated throughout the country and photo electoral rolls would be used in 522 of the 543 constituencies where polling would take place. In a house of 545, the president appoints two members of the Anglo-Indian community.
Gopalaswami was flanked at the press conference by Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and S.Y. Quraishi.
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1942843
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