Election Commission to release Assembly elections 2024 schedule today

Assembly elections 2024: The Election Commission of India (ECI) will unveil the schedule for the General Election to Legislative Assemblies today,  August 16. The announcement is expected in the afternoon.

The election regulating body will announce the schedule for assembly elections at around 3:00 PM via press conference. However, the Commission did not mention the states for which the election schedule would be announced.

The poll panel recently visited Jammu and Kashmir, and Haryana to oversee the preparations for the Assembly elections 2024. The poll body delegation led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar emphasised that the commission is committed to holding elections in Jammu and Kashmir "at the earliest". However, the ECI is yet to visit Maharashtra but will likely announce the schedule for the elections to the 288-member legislative assembly today.

The ECI circular dated August 16 states, “Press Conference by Election Commission of India to announce the schedule for General Election to Legislative Assemblies.” It further notes that the press conference will be held in Plenary Hall at Delhi's Vigyan Bhawan.

As per reports, the terms of the legislative assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra end on November 3 and November 26, respectively. In Haryana, elections are scheduled on 90 legislative assembly constituencies. In the 2019 elections, the BJP secured 40 seats and formed a coalition government with the JJP that won 10 seats. Earlier this year, the BJP-JJP alliance broke up.

In accordance with the deadline set by the Supreme Court in December last year, the poll panel plans to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir before September 30. Elections will be held after a gap of ten years in Jammu and Kashmir as the last assembly elections took place in 2014. In June 2018, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its support to the then-Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, following which the PDP-BJP coalition government fell.

(With inputs from ANI)