Assembly Election 2022 Updates: Dates Announced! all physical political rallies, roadshows barred till January 15 - details here!

The Election Commission of India begins its press conference to announce dates for assembly polls in five states. The states that will go for polling are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra along with Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey are addressing the press conference.

Key takeaways:

- CEC Sushil Chandra - Election results for five staes on 10 March

- CEC Sushil Chandra - Manipur to go to elections in two phases on 27 February and 3 March  

- CEC Sushil Chandra - Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa elections to happen in one phase on 14 February.

- CEC Sushil Chandra - UP to go to polls for 403 seats; Uttarakhand will got to polls for 70 seats; Manipur for 60 seats, Goa for 40 seats and Punjab for 117 seats

- CEC Sushil Chandra - UP elections to happen in 7 phases. First phase of polling in UP to begn from 10 February. Second phase on 14 February. Third phase on 20 February; fourt phase on 23 February, fifth phase on 27 February, sixth phase on 3 March and 7 phase on 7 March.

- CEC Sushil Chandra - Elections to happen in 7 phases in 5 states

- CEC Sushil Chandra: EC directs no physical political rallies and roadshows will be allowed till January 15, 2022

- CEC Sushil Chandra: No roadshows, padyatras, cycle or bike rallies and processions shall be allowed till 15th January; situation to be reviewed and fresh instructions to be issued late

 CEC Sushil Chandra: All election officials and employees will be considered as frontline workers and all eligible officers will be vaccinated with 'precautionary dos

- CEC Sushil Chandra: Our cVIGIL application should be used by voters to report any incident of violation of the Model Code of Conduct, distribution of money & freebies. Within 100 minutes of complaint, ECI officials will reach the place of offence

- CEC Sushil Chandra: Model Code of Conduct (MCC) comes into effect immediately from announcement of the schedules. Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for ensuring the effective implementation of the MCC guidelines

- CEC Sushil Chandra: It is mandatory for political parties to upload on their website detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases selected as poll candidates. They will also have to give a reason to select the candidate

- CEC Sushil Chandra: Elections to be held for 403 assembly seats in UP, 117 in Punjab, 70 in Uttarakhand 60 in Manipur and 40 in Goa

- CEC Sushil Chandra: As COVID cases soared in view of Omicron variant, ECI held meetings with Union Health Secretary & Home Secretary, experts, & health secretaries of States. After taking these views & ground situation, ECI decided to announce polls with safety norms in place

- CEC Sushil Chandra: We are also giving the candidates the online facility to file nominations.

- CEC Sushil Chandra: ECI has mandated that at least one polling station managed exclusively by women shall be set up in every Assembly constituency. Our officers have identified much more than that. There're 690 Assembly seats but we are setting up 1620 such polling booths

- CEC Sushil Chandra: Officials at the polling stations will be double vaccinated

- CEC Sushil Chandra: 24.9 lakh first-time electors are registered in the 5  States including Uttar Pradesh:

- CEC Sushil Chandra: A total of 18.34 crore electors including service voters will take part in this election out of which 8.55 crore are women electors: CEC Sushil Chandra on 5 States polls

- CEC Sushil Chandra: As COVID cases soared in view of Omicron variant, ECI held meetings with Union Health Secretary & Home Secretary, experts, & health secretaries of States. After taking these views & ground situation, ECI decided to announce polls with safety norms in place: CEC Sushil Chandra

- CEC: States were consulted for conducting elections 

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

Earlier in the day, tweeted about the press briefing.

See Tweet Here

CEC Sh Sushil Chandra along with ECs Sh Rajiv Kumar & Sh Anup Chandra Pandey, to address a Press Conference today @ 3:30 pm to announce Schedule for General Elections to Legislative Assemblies of Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand & UP.

Watch Live: https://t.co/Drkj8MtrW5 pic.twitter.com/P7euBdzEAi

— Election Commission of India #SVEEP (@ECISVEEP) January 8, 2022

While the term of the current Uttar Pradesh assembly is ending in May, those of the other four assemblies are ending on different dates in March.