Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 16: The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced the dates for the Assembly Elections in four states – Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh along with the Lok Sabha poll schedule.
Arunachal Pradesh, which has 60 assembly and 2 Lok Sabha seats, will vote in both elections simultaneously on April 19. Sikkim with 32 assembly seats will also vote on April 19 in a single phase.
The voting for the 147 state assembly seats in Odisha will be held across four phases between May 13 and June 1. Odisha will vote in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls simultaneously on May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1, it said. There are 21 Lok Sabha seats in the State. The first round of voting will coincide with phase 4 of the Lok Sabha elections.
In Odisha, on May 13 polling will be held for 28 Assembly seats and four Lok Sabha constituencies. In the next phase on May 20, voting will be held for 35 Assembly seats and five Lok Sabha constituencies. On May 25, voting for 42 Assembly segments and six Lok Sabha seats will be held and the polling for the remaining 42 assembly seats and six Lok Sabha constituencies will be held on June 1.
The voting for Andhra Pradesh’s 175 assembly seats will take place on May 13. The counting of votes for all the four state Assembly seats will be held along with Lok Sabha elections on June 4.
The BJP retained power in Arunachal Pradesh in 2019, winning 41 of the 60 seats. The Janata Dal (United) got seven, the National People’s Party (NPP) five, Congress four, and the Peoples Party of Arunachal Pradesh one seat. On Wednesday, the BJP announced candidates for all 60 seats in Arunachal.
In neighbouring Sikkim, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) formed the government in 2019 as it won 17 of 32 seats. The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) won 15 seats.
The poll schedule was announced even as confusion continued over the alliance between BJP and the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held a second meeting of BJD leaders on Thursday over the alliance but there was no word on the finalisation of the tie-up.
State BJP chief Manmohan Samal, who attended a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday night, said on X on Thursday that the party will fight alone in Odisha and form the government before deleting the post. He later told reporters that the discussions continued.
In 2019, Patnaik retained Odisha’s top post for a fifth term as the BJD won 115 of the 147 assembly seats, the BJP won 23 seats, the Congress secured nine seats, the CPI(M) won one and also an Independent candidate won. Mr Patnaik had then equalled the record of Pawan Chamling (Sikkim) and Jyoti Basu (West Bengal). In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJD had won 12 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha while the BJP secured eight seats and the Congress bagged one seat.
In Andhra Pradesh, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) stormed to power in 2019, winning 151 assembly seats and a vote share of 49.5%.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which won 23 assembly seats, will contest the 2024 polls in alliance with Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party and the BJP. It returned to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after six years.
