The Chief Election Commissioner of India announced the polling dates for the Lok Sabha elections 2019 today. The Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora held a 100 minute long press conference to make this announcement today.
Elections will be conducted in 7 phases, and the elections begin on 11th of April and the counting date will be the 23rd of May. Elections to Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha to be held simultaneously with the general elections to the Lok Sabha.
The ECI made it clear that elections to legislative assembly in the state of Jammu and Kashmir was not possible simultaneously due to the tense situations in the recent past, and also due to inadequate supply of security personnel.
The Election Commissioner expressed humor in the marathon 100 minute press meet. One of the questions asked was “Why did you choose to announce the polling dates on a Sunday?” Mr. Arora said the members of the media that, “We were first going to announce the dates on Monday, but then we though why should we give you a holiday?”
900 million voters will vote this summer, off which 84 million are new voters between the age 18-19. Over 10 lakh polling booths to be set up, and all votes to be tracked by VVPATs.
In a new, the Election Commissioner announced affixing of candidates photos on the electronic voting machines to help citizens vote wisely.
Polling Dates
Phase 1 – 11th April 2019
Phase 2 – 18th April 2019
Phase 3 – 23rd April 2019
Phase 4 – 29th April 2019
Phase 5 – 6th May 2019
Phase 6 – 12th May 2019
Phase 7 – 19th May 2019
Counting of Votes – 23rd May 2019
Below is the chart with polling dates phase wise.
The detailed constituency list could be found here.
Updated : 22:07 IST with map and link of ECI portal.