The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases, starting April 11. The results will be declared in May 23.
Four state Assembly elections - in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha - will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will not be held in this duration. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora seemed to suggest that security concerns had pushed the poll panel to arrive at this decision.
The counting of votes for the 543 parliamentary constituencies and the four Assemblies will happen together on May 23. The five-year term of the current Lok Sabha ends on June 3.
With the announcement of dates the moral code of conduct comes into force immediately.
These are the dates:
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal will vote in all seven phases, while Jammu and Kashmir will vote in five.
Eighteen states and Union territories will vote in a single shot. These are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar, Daman and Diu.
Karnataka, Manipur, Rajastan and Tripura will vote in two phases. Assam and Chhattisgarh will poll in three rounds.
Four phases of polling will be held in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha.
There are 34 Assembly by-elections to be held, among these many in Tamil Nadu. The commission will hold these bypolls simultaneously with the general elections in those constituencies.