New Delhi, October 12: Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh will be held in a single phase on November 9, the Election Commission of India announced in New Delhi on Thursday. Counting of votes will be held on December 18.
Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti, accompanied by Election Commissioners Om Prakash Rawat and Sunil Arora made the announcement.
The elections will be conducted by using electronic voting machines (EVMs) with voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).
The model code of conduct comes into effect immediately.
While speculations were rife that the ECI may announces the poll dates for Gujarat Assembly also, Mr. Jyoti said the elections for the western State will be held later.
An estimated 49.05 lakh voters, including over 20,000 new voters, will be exercising their franchise from 7,521 polling stations in Himachal Pradesh.
Voter assistance booth will be set up and 200 wheel chairs have been arranged by the State government, Mr. Jyoti said. There will be 136 all-women managed poll stations this time, he added.
The ceiling for election expenditure per candidate is Rs. 25 lakh.
The Election Commission, for the first time use, RONet, an integrated application for conducted elections. It was first implemented in pilot basis in Ludhiana Assembly elections in February this year.
The term of the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly will come to an end on January 7, 2018.
While the BJP is yet to annpunce its chief ministerial candidate, Congress has announced Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh as the nominee.
Key dates
Number of Constituencies: 68
Date of Notification of election: Oct 13, 2017
Last date of nominations: Oct 23, 2017
Scrutiny of nominations: Oct 24, 2017
Last date for withdrawal of nominations: Oct 26, 2017
Voting: Nov 9, 2017
Counting on Dec 18, 2017
