EC announces poll schedule for NE states

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy on Monday announced the schedule for the upcoming assembly polls in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. According to the CEC, while Tripura will go to polls on February 23, the elections in Meghalaya will be held on March 3 and in Nagaland on March 5.

The elections in all the three states will be held in a single phase and electronic voting machines will be used this year. While counting of votes for Tripura and Meghalaya is scheduled to be held on March 7, in Nagaland, the counting will take place a day later.

In Tripura, the notification for the polls will take place on January 3. The last date of nomination will be February 6 and candidature can be withdrawn till February 9.

In Meghalaya, notification will be announced on February 8, last date for filing nomination papers is February 15 and they can be withdrawn till February 18. Scrutiny of papers will take place in Tripura on February 7 and in Meghalaya on February 16.

In Nagaland, the poll notification will take place on February 9, the last date of filing nominations is February 16, scrutiny of papers will be taken up on February 18, and the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is on February 20.  

"The model code of conduct comes into force with immediate effect," the CEC told newsmen at a press conference at Nirvachan Sadan on Monday.

Fifty five seats in the Meghalaya assembly are reserved for Schedule Tribes while in Nagaland, 59 seats are reserved for Schedule Tribes. In Tripura, 20 seats out of sixty are reserved for Schedule Tribes and 7 for Scheduled Castes.

"The number of voters, who will be exercising their franchise in Tripura, is 20, 30,886. It is 12, 30,152 in Meghalaya and in Nagaland, as per the final electoral rolls, the number of voters is 13,00,507," states the statistics released by the EC. The EC has already set up 1,582 polling stations in Meghalaya, 1,586 in Nagaland  and 2,373 in Tripura.

Gopalaswamy said that the poll schedule for Karnataka will be announced only after the elections in the three North Eastern states have been completed.