EC to announce schedule for assembly elections in five states today

New Delhi: The Election Commission will today declare the schedule for assembly polls in the states of Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh today at 3.30 pm.

Sources in the Election Commission have said the state of Uttar Pradesh is likely to vote in six to eight phases, while Punjab will go for polling in two to three phases. Manipur is likely to have two-phase elections while Goa and Uttarakhand will vote in a single phase.

In UP, there are 1,74,351 polling booths at present. The number of voters allowed to vote in a single polling both has been limited to 1,200 from 1,500 due to the



surge in Covid cases.

Earlier, there were a total of 1,64,472 polling booths in the state, which have been increased in view of the Covid situation.

In the last conference held by the poll body, the chief election commissioner said all parties wanted assembly polls in the state of Uttar Pradesh to be held on time, even as clamour grew for banning campaigns in the wake of the Covid surge.

The poll body asked the authorities in the poll-bound states to speed up the vaccination programme and announced a slew of measures to ensure Covid safety during the polls.