The Election Commission of India will most likely announce the dates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls today. The ECI will hold a press conference at 5 pm today at the Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi.
The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on the 3rd of June.
As soon as the dates are announced the model code of conduct will come into force, which means the code bars the government from announcing policy decisions.
The ECI had come under attack by senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel for deliberately delaying the announcement to allow the Prime Minister to continue launching a series of schemes and welfare programs that would not be possible once model code of conduct comes into effect. Over the past 30 days the Prime Minister of India launched 157 projects.
In 2014, the election commission announced the polling date on the 5th of March, however this time around there has been a slight delay of 5 days.