Elections to 5 states announced
The Election Commission of India today announced elections to the five state assemblies of Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.
Elections in Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana will be held in one phase, while in Chhattisgarh it will be held in two phases.
The voting dates are as follows:
- November 7: Mizoram and Chhattisgarh (Phase-I)
- November 17: Chhattisgarh (Phase-II) and Madhya Pradesh
- November 23: Rajasthan
- November 30: Telangana
The counting of votes for all the five states will be held on December 3.
More than 16 crore voters—8.24 crore male voters and 7.88 crore female voters (with the total including 32,000 centenarian voters and 17.35 lakh people with disabilities) —would be eligible to cast their votes in these elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference while asserting that strong measures are being put in place to make these polls inducement-free.
Around 60 lakh first-time voters aged 18-19 years would be eligible. To encourage young voters to vote, over 2,900 polling stations will be managed by the youth, CEC Kumar said.
Women voters exceed male voters in Mizoram and Chhattisgarh, and equal in Telangana, he said.
There are 679 assembly constituencies in the five states—230 in Madhya Pradesh, 200 in Rajasthan, 119 in Telangana, 90 in Chhattisgarh and 40 in Mizoram.
The detailed schedule is as follows:
