Are Lok Sabha elections going to be held on April 16?
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi has issued a clarification regarding the date of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, following confusion stemming from a notification issued by it to all 11 District Election Officers (DEOs) in Delhi,
The communication, dated January 19 and titled ‘Compliance/adhering to timelines given in Election Planner of Election Commission of India’, said that with respect to the General Election to the Lok Sabha in 2024, “the Commission [ECI] has tentatively given the Poll Day as 16.04.2024 for the purpose of reference and to calculate Start and End dates in the Election Planner”. (bold added in the letter)
It went viral today, sparking wild speculations.
However, the Delhi CEO’s official handle on X (formerly Twitter) wrote this clarificatory post soof after:
“Some media queries are coming referring to a circular by @CeodelhiOffice to clarify whether 16.04.2024 is tentative poll day for #LSElections2024. It is clarified that this date was mentioned only for ‘reference’ for officials to plan activities as per Election Planner of ECI.”
Despite this clarification, there is still some uncertainty about whether or not the date mentioned is really the election date, considering the language of the notification, which said that the poll date was to be considered as April 16 (though mentioned as tentative) “to calculate Start and End dates in the Election Planner”.
