Reporters
Intensive electioneering campaign going on in full swing for the Second and Third Phase of Assembly Elections in Assam and West Bengal and also for the single-phase elections in Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The Second Phase of polling in these two states will be conducted on 1st of April in 39 Assembly Constituencies of Assam where the total number of candidates will be 346 and that in case of 30 Constituencies of West Bengal will be 171.
Third Phase polling in these two states will be held on 6th of April when 338 candidates will be contesting for the 40 seats of Assam and 205 candidates for 31 seats of West Bengal.
The single-phase polling in Kerala, Tamil Nadu along with the Union Territory of Puducherry will also be held on 6th of the next month. While there will be 957 candidates in fray for the 140 Assembly Constituencies of Kerala, the total number of candidates will be 4,125 in respect of 234 Constituencies in Tamil Nadu. In Puducherry, 324 candidates will be vying for the 30 Assembly seats.
Besides, the Lok Sabha by-polls will be conducted simultaneously for Kanniyakumari seat in Tamil Nadu where there will be 12 candidates in the fray and also for Malappuram seat in Kerala where six candidates will be taking part in the electoral battle.
During the Fourth Phase of Assembly Elections, the candidates can withdraw their names till this afternoon. During the Fourth Phase, 44 ACs in West Bengal will go to polls on 10th of April while 45 ACs will go to polls in the Fifth Phase on 17th of April.
The nomination process for the Fifth Phase will continue till 30th of March and the scrutiny will be undertaken on 31st of March. The nominations are also being filed for simultaneous By-Elections of two Lok Sabha seats including Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and Belgaum in Karnataka along with 14 Assembly Constituencies in eleven states. The ACs going in for the by-polls include three in Rajasthan, two in Karnataka and one each in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
Meanwhile, the process of filing nominations for the Sixth Phase of elections in West Bengal got underway today with the issuance of notification. The nomination process for this phase will continue till 3rd of April and the scrutiny of nominations will be undertaken on 5th of April. The last date of withdrawal of candidature will be 7th of April and 43 Assembly Constituencies will go to polls in this phase on 22nd of April.