Polling days out: 5 states to vote in 7 phases

Polling days out: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the schedule for the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand. 403 Assembly seats are slated to go to polls in Uttar Pradesh, 70 seats are up for grabs in Uttarakhand, 117 seats in Punjab, 40 seats in Goa and 60 seats in Manipur. The poll dates were announced by CEC Sushil Chandra at a press conference in New Delhi.

Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls 2022

The Election Commission announced a seven-phase election to the Uttar Pradesh assembly from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7.

Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa Assembly polls 2022

The polling in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa will be held on February 14

Manipur Assembly polls 2022

Polling in Manipur will be held in two phases on February 27 and March 6.

Assembly polls 2022: Counting of votes

The counting of votes in Uttar Pradesh will take place on March 10 along with Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur

The Model Code of Conduct for governments, candidates and political parties has come into force with the announcement of the election schedule for five states.

#UttarPradesh to go to poll in 7 phases from 10th February to 7th March#Punjab, #Uttarakhand and #Goa to vote on 14th February #Manipur to vote on 27th Feb & 3rd March

Counting of votes on 10th March pic.twitter.com/b9PWhCKzW9
— PIB India (@PIB_India) January 8, 2022

What is Model Code

The model code is a set of guidelines, issued by the Election Commission, for political parties, candidates, government and the party in power during elections concerning speeches, announcements, election manifestos and general conduct.

Announcing the month-long election schedule, the Election Commission also banned physical rallies and roadshows till January 15 due to the rise in Covid-19 cases in the country.

18.3 crore people, including 8.5 crore women, will be eligible to cast their votes in 690 assembly seats in the five states that will go for polls

In the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 312 out of 403 seats. The Samajwadi Party and the Congress had sealed an alliance with the former contesting on 298 seats and the latter on the remaining 105 seats. The SP could manage to win only 47 seats and Congress won seven seats. Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) had won 19 seats.