New Delhi, March 10: The Parliamentary elections to the 17th Lok Sabha will be held from April 11 across the country in 7 phases. With the announcement made by the Election Commissioner here on Sunday, the model code of conduct comes into force with immediate effect.
The term of the present 16th Lok Sabha ends on June 3. With the code of conduct coming into effect, the government has been barred from announcing any policy decisions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his bid to return to power amid hectic parleys by several political parties to put a united fight against the ruling BJP.
The Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh will also be held along with the Lok Sabha polls.
All the political parties in the state have favoured simultaneous polls during a meeting with the Election Commission earlier this week.
The J&K Assembly’s six-year term was to end on March 16, 2021, but it got dissolved after a ruling coalition between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell apart.
The other state Assemblies and Lok Sabha have five-year terms.
The required electronic voting machines and paper trail machines are in place to be deployed in nearly 10 lakh polling stations across 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.
In 2014, the EC had announced the election schedule on March 5 and the nine-phase electoral exercise was spread across April and May. While the first phase polling was on April 7, the last phase was on May 12.
