The Election Commission on Saturday announced the dates for assembly polls in five states— Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand.
“COVID-19 has made conduct of polls challenging,” Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said, adding that there are a total of 690 assembly seats in the five poll-bound states. More than 18 crore voters, including over 8.5 crore women, will be eligible to vote in these polls, Chandra added.
“We aim to conduct Covid-safe elections in five states with maximum voter participation with extensive preparations,” he said, adding that all polling stations will be equipped with Covid-mitigation facilities including sanitisers and masks. There is also an increase of 16 per cent in the number of polling stations.
While the tenure of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly ends in May, the terms of the legislative assemblies of Goa, Manipur and Punjab end on different dates in March.
The elections will be conducted in seven phases, the CEC said. Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa will vote on February 14, and Manipur to vote in two phases on February 27 and March 3. The votes in all the five states will be counted on March 10.
Amid massive surge in COVID-19 cases across the country, the EC had recently asked the five states to step up the inoculation drive against the viral disease and ensure that the personnel to be deployed on election duty are "double vaccinated". In a letter to the chief secretaries, the EC had stressed that polling personnel come under the category of frontline workers and are eligible for the "precaution dose" of the COVID-19 vaccines.
