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President will set the electoral ball rolling tomorrow

The electoral process for the first phase of Lok Sabha poll, scheduled for September 5 in 146 parliamentary constituencies spread over 10 states and six Union territories, will be set in motion on Wednesday with a notification from President K R Narayanan.

Separate notifications will be issued for the first phase of assembly elections in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

One-day polling will be held in Goa, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab along with the Union territories of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Pondicherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, and Delhi.

Fifteen Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka, 24 in Maharashtra, 10 in Rajasthan, 19 in Tamil Nadu, 13 each in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, and two in Jammu and Kashmir will go to the polls on that day.

The 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra Pradesh scheduled for the first round are: Narsaraopet, Ongole, Nellore, Tirupati (SC), Chittoor, Rajampet, Cuddapah, Hindupur, Anantapur, Kurnool, Nandyal, Nagarkurnool and Mahbubnagar. More than 15 million voters will be involved in the process.

While Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu will have two-day polling, in Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir voting will extend over three days.

In the first phase of assembly election, polling will be held in 91 constituencies in Andhra Pradesh, 144 in Maharashtra and 120 in Karnataka.

Nominations for the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and Union Territories that go to the polls in the first round will be accepted by the returning officers till August 18. Scrutiny will be done the next day. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is August 21.

Counting will start on October 6 after polling is completed all over the country.

The second phase will be held on September 11 for 123 Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra Pradesh (15), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Karnataka (13), Kerala (20), Madhya Pradesh (14), Maharashtra (24), Rajasthan (15) and Tamil Nadu (20).

The third phase will be held in 79 constituencies on September 18: Andhra Pradesh (14), Bihar (19), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Madhya Pradesh (14) and Uttar Pradesh (30).

The fourth phase will be conducted in 74 constituencies on September 25: Bihar (19), Himachal Pradesh (4), Madhya Pradesh (12), Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland (1 each), Meghalaya (2), Orissa (10) and Uttar Pradesh (24).

The last round will be held on October 3: 121 constituencies spread over Arunachal Pradesh (2), Assam (14), Bihar (16), Manipur (1), Orissa (11), Sikkim (1), Tripura (2), Uttar Pradesh (31), West Bengal (42) and Lakshadweep (1).

Separate notifications will be issued for each phase.

UNI

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