Polling begins on february 4, counting for all states on march 11, 7-phase polling in up

The Election Commission(EC) has announced the dates for the assembly elections to five states – Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. 690 seats from all the five states will

go to polls starting February 4, 2017. The counting for all the five states will take place on March 11, 2017.The model code of conduct has already come into force. Goa, Punjab and

Uttarakhand will have a single-phase polling. Goa and Punjab will go to vote on February 4 while Uttarakhand will poll on February 15, 2017. There will be a two phase polling in Manipur. The

first phase with 38 constituencies will go to polls on March 4 and the rest 22 constituencies will vote on March 8 in the second phase. Uttar Pradesh with 403 assembly constituencies will

have a seven-phase poll. The first phase will be held on February 11, second on February 15, third on February 19, fourth on February 23, fifth on February 27, sixth on March 4 and the

seventh on March 8. The EC also mentioned that almost 100% of the voters from these five states have their voter identity cards. Of the 690 seats, 133 seats have been reserved for Scheduled

Caste (SC) and 23 seats have been reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates. Sixteen crore voters will participate in the election and 1.85 lakh polling stations will be set up.For the

first time ballot paper will have photos of the candidates. There will be ‘women only’ voting booths set up in the states with voters assistance booths to assist the voters if there are any

problems.