Election Commission to announce assembly polls schedule at 3pm today

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will announce the schedule for assembly elections on at 3pm Friday, August 16.

An invitation to the media from the Election Commission for a press conference at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan around 3pm did not mention the states for which the election schedule would be announced.

The terms of the legislative assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra end on November 3 and November 26, respectively. The election panel also plans to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir before September 30, the deadline set by the Supreme Court.

The Election Commission has visited Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana recently to oversee the poll preparedness but is yet to visit Maharashtra.

Assembly election is also due in Jharkhand. The term of the legislative assembly of Jharkhand ends in January 2025.

The poll body is also likely to announce the election schedule in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

If it happens, Jammu and Kashmir will witness elections after a gap of 10 years as the last assembly election was held in 2014.

In 2019, the Narendra Modi government abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. However, after the bifurcation in August 2019, the Assembly polls could not be held due to various reasons, including a delimitation exercise completed in 2022

Recently, a poll body delegation led by chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar had reviewed the poll preparations in Jammu and Kashmir.

During a press conference in Jammu during the visit, Kumar had emphasised that the commission is committed to holding elections there “at the earliest”.

“We are committed to conducting polls in Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest and we will not let any internal or external forces derail the election. All political parties in Jammu and Kashmir are batting strongly for holding assembly elections as soon as possible,” Kumar had said.