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ECI Announces Poll Dates for Five States

  • By Thetripurapost Desk, New Delhi
  • Mar 15, 2026
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The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced the schedule for the upcoming Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

Polling in West Bengal will be conducted in two phases on April 23 and April 29, while Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry will go to the polls in single-phase elections. Voting in Tamil Nadu is scheduled for April 23, whereas Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry will vote on April 9. The counting of votes for all five regions will take place on May 4.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar stated that approximately 174 million voters are eligible to participate in the electoral exercise across these states and the Union Territory. Elections will be held for a total of 824 Assembly seats. With the announcement of the poll schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has come into immediate effect.

For comparison, the 2021 Assembly elections in these five regions were announced on February 26. At that time, polling in West Bengal was conducted in eight phases, while Assam voted in three phases, and Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry held single-phase elections. The terms of the current legislative assemblies in these states are scheduled to expire between May and June.

The Commission also highlighted significant changes in voter rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of voter deletions. When the revision process began on October 27, 2025, the state had 64,114,587 registered voters. After nearly four months of revision, 7,407,207 names were removed, leaving 56,707,380 voters on the updated electoral roll.

West Bengal recorded the second-highest number of deletions, with nearly 5.8 million names removed. Kerala followed with approximately 800,000 deletions, while Assam saw around 200,000 voters removed after a Special Revision (SR) exercise. Puducherry recorded the lowest number of deletions, with roughly 77,000 names removed from the voter list.à1