Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Election Commission of India, on Sunday (March 15, 2026), will announce the dates for Assembly polls in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The poll authority has convened a press conference at 4 p.m. to announce the schedule. The terms of these Legislative Assemblies are ending on different dates in May and June.
Final electoral rolls of the four States and the Union Territory of Puducherry have been published as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters’ list.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, on Tuesday (March 10, 2026), visited West Bengal to review poll preparedness in the State. They had also visited the other poll-bound States.
The total number of seats in West Bengal Legislative Assembly is 294, with the main contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The TMC, led by Mamata Banerjee, has been in power in the State since 2011.
Assam will witness a fight between the incumbent BJP-led NDA Government and the Congress for 126 State Assembly seats.
In Kerala, the main fight is between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) for 140 seats. Meanwhile, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is also in the fray. The BJP plans to contest around 100 seats in Kerala, while its allies the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) and the Twenty20 are expected to contest the remaining 40 seats as part of the alliance.
For the 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, political parties are ramping up their campaign activities and finalising seat-sharing arrangements within their respective alliances.
Puducherry will hold elections for all 30 constituencies of the 16th Puducherry Legislative Assembly. While the Congress is fighting the polls in an alliance with DMK and CPI, the opposition consisted of All India NR Congress, BJP and AIADMK.
The Election Commission of India reviewed poll preparedness for the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry earlier this month.
According to a release, the ECI appointed Central Observers under the plenary powers conferred on it by Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 20B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, to assist the Commission in the conduct of free and fair polls. They also oversee the efficient and effective management of the electoral process at the field level.
Published – March 15, 2026 10:33 am IST
