Assam Election 2021 to be held in 3 phases; check dates here

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has revealed the dates for the ensuing Assam Assembly elections in 2021. The Assam election 2021 will be held in three phases starting from March 27. Results will be declared on May 2.

Phase 1 will be held in 47 Constituencies:

Issue of Notification -- 2nd March

Last Date of Nomination -- 9th March

Scrutiny of Nomination -- 10th March

Last Date of Withdrawal of Candidature: 12th March

Date of Poll: 27th March

Date of Counting: 2nd May

Phase 2 will be held in 39 Constituencies:

Issue of Notification -- 5th March

Last Date of Nomination -- 12th March

Last Date of Withdrawal of Candidature: 17th March

Date of Poll: 1st April

Phase 3 will be held in 40 Constituencies:

Issue of Notification -- 12th March

Last Date of Nomination -- 19th March

Scrutiny of Nomination: 20th March

Last Date of Withdrawal of Candidature: 22nd March

Date of Poll: 6th April

S Srinivasan has been chosen as the IAS Observer of the Assam election, stated Sunil Arora, the Chief Election Commissioner of India. Ashok Kumar has been chosen as the IPS observer for Assam. At the same time, Meena Nigam has been chosen as the Expense Observer.

In Assam, the term of the current Assembly is up to May 31, 2020. While 8 Seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC), 16 Seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The expenditure limit (per Constituency) in Assam will be Rs. 30.8 lakh, Arora further said.

Arora said the decision to hold the election on the aforementioned dates was done after consulting various stakeholders and authorities over the past several months.

Arora said that the COVID-19 restrictions shall also be observed in all the poll-bound states during the ensuing polls.

Meanwhile, the health ministry of India has already declared all poll workers as frontline workers for vaccination and all officials are to be inoculated against the pathogen.

At the same time, many steps have been taken against the potential outbreak of COVID. For instance, only 2 persons will now be allowed to accompany a candidate when he goes to file nomination papers.

Arora also informed that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) come into force "with the announcement of these elections."

Arora also appealed to citizens to make extensive use of the C-Vigil app to report any fishy election-related activity.

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While announcing the dates, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora paid tributes to the COVID-19 warriors who have played a significant role since the pandemic surfaced on our shores.

"Our tributes to the Covid warriors, doctors, paramedics, nurses, researchers, scientists, and all our officials on election duty who are located on the frontline," Arora said.

Critical polling stations have already been deployed and advance CAPF teams have already been sent to all the states and the UT, stated Arora.

It needs mention here that the Election Commission (EC) held a crucial meeting on Wednesday to finalize the schedule for the ensuing elections in the four states (West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala) and one Union Territory (Puducherry).

The meeting was chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.

The terms of the legislative assemblies of the four states are coming to an end in May and June.

Polls are to be held for 294 seats in West Bengal, 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, 140 seats in Kerala, 126 seats in Assam, and 30 seats in Puducherry. In Puducherry, the President's Rule has been imposed.

Notably, this will be the first elections after the rollout of Digital Voter ID cards.

So, people exercising their franchise will be able to cast their vote by showing their e-electoral photo identity card.