The Election Commission will announce dates for Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand at 3.30pm.
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.
Amid rising COVID-19 cases, the EC had recently asked the five poll-bound 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 stressed that polling personnel come under the category of frontline workers and are eligible for the "precaution dose" of the COVID-19 vaccines. The commission also said the polling personnel to be deployed in these states should be fully vaccinated and those eligible for the second dose of the vaccines should be administered the jabs on a priority basis.
The poll panel, along with Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, had assessed the situation in these states on December 27. It noted that the percentage of those who have received the first dose of the vaccines was still less in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur, while it was nearing 100 per cent in Uttarakhand and Goa.
-with PTI inputs
