Assembly Elections To Be Held In 4 States Along With National Polls

Elections in Odisha will be held in four phases in April

Assembly elections will be held parallelly with the Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha, the Election Commission said on Sunday. Polling will take place in one phase in all these states, except Odisha, where it will be held over four phases.

Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim will go to vote on April 11. Elections in Odisha will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29.

This is the technically the first time since Telangana was carved out that Andhra Pradesh will have parliamentary polls. The state has 25 parliament and 175 assembly seats.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu -- a key interlocutor of the opposition who has been trying to forge a united front against the BJP for months -- is making a bid for a second term in power. But at the state-level, he has ruled out an alliance with the Congress, which is held responsible by the state's people for the bifurcation of Telangana.

If successful, Mr Naidu, who also served as the Chief Minister of the undivided state between 1994 and 2004, will become the state's longest-serving Chief Minister.

In BJP-ruled Arunachal Pradesh, polling will be held for 60 seats. Pema Khandu became the Chief Minister in 2016 after the resignation of Congress's Nabam Tuki.

Sikkim - the only state in the northeast where the BJP is not in power -- will witness polling on its 32 assembly seats. The state is ruled by Pawan Chamling -- the chief of the Sikkim Democratic Front -- who is seeking power for a sixth term.