Phase 2 polls: EC to issue gazette notification today

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will issue gazette notification for the second phase of elections on Thursday.

About 88 Parliamentary Constituencies (PCs) in 12 states/union territories along with one part PC (Outer Manipur) will go to polls in this phase scheduled to be held on April 26. Darjeeling, Raiganj and Balurghat will go for polls during the 2nd phase.

Filing of nominations in the second phase of general elections will start from Thursday with the last date of nomination being April 4. The date for scrutiny of nominations is scheduled on April 5. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 8.

Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and part of Manipur will also have polls during phase 2. Meanwhile, the nomination filing for the first phase of elections in Bengal scheduled to be held on April 19 came to an end on Wednesday.

According to sources in the CEO (Chief Electoral Officer), Bengal till Tuesday, 10 nominations each have been filed for Cooch Behar (SC) and Jalpaiguri (SC) respectively while 8 nominations have been filed for Alipurduar (ST) seat. The All India Trinamool Congress filed nominations for both Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar till Tuesday.

The BJP has filed nominations for all the three seats by Tuesday. About 17 companies of Central Forces have already been deployed in Cooch Behar, 9 companies in Alipurduar and 11 in Jalpaiguri which is expected to go up further with another 27 companies slated to reach the state by the first week of April.