State polls to be held simultaneously, no election in J-K

The elections to legislative assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha will be held simultaneously along with the Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission of India said on Sunday.

The counting of votes will be done on May 23.

Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal and Sikkim will go to the polls for all seats in their respectively assemblies as well as the Lok Sabha in the first phase on April 11.

Parliamentary and assembly polls will be held in Odisha across the first four phases on April 11, April 18, April 23 and April 29, respectively.

Announcing the poll schedule at a press conference at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said: "There will be no state assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. Only parliamentary elections will take place in the state."

With the formal announcement of the election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct comes into force with immediate effect, which debars the use of state machinery, public platforms and any such things for canvassing purposes.

The term of Sikkim Vidhan Sabha ends on May 27 while that of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha on June 18, June 1 and June 11 respectively.

The Biju Janata Dal is in power in Odisha under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while in Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu leads the Telugu Desam Party government.

Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling leads the Sikkim Democratic Front government in Sikkim.

Last year in June, the Bharatiya Janata Party pulled out of its alliance with the People's Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir, following which Mehbooba Mufti resigned as the chief Minister of the state.

This led to the imposition of President’s Rule in the state.

The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s six-year term was scheduled to end on March 16, 2021, but the House was dissolved in November last year after the coalition between the PDP and the BJP fell apart.

Arora said the Election Commission decided to announce the schedule for only Lok Sabha polls in the state and not for the assembly elections due to inputs it had received from authorities regarding constraint of availability of central forces for enforcing security in the wake of recent violence.

Even the parliamentary election for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in the state is going to be held in three phases, he said, underscoring the security challenge in the region.