The last general elections to the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in the united Andhra Pradesh will be held in two phases on April 30 and May 7.
The counting of votes for both phases will be taken up on May 16 and election process will come to an end by May 28. Only after the completion of the election process, two successor States of Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh will come into effect from the notified appointed day- June 2.
Addressing a media conference here on Wednesday, the Chief Electoral Officer Banwar Lal disclosed the two phase schedule announced by the Election Commission for the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the Lok Sabha constituencies. The model code of conduct also came into force with immediate effect, he said.
In the first phase, elections will be held to 17 parliamentary and 119 Assembly constituencies in Telangana region on April 30 and in the second phase, 25 parliamentary constituencies and 175 Assembly constituencies will go to polls on May 7.
The CEO called for a meeting with all the political parties, Indian National Congress, BJP, Telugu Desam, Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Telugu Desam after the Election Commission announced the schedule and briefed them about the new rules in filing affidavits.
Every contesting candidate should file affidavits related to assets, liabilities of self, spouse and dependents and court cases if any. The candidates should also disclose details of assets and investments made abroad. No column in the affidavit should be left blank as it would attract stern action.
The contesting candidates have to maintain separate bank account and all the election related expenditure be paid through cheques. The ceiling for election expenditure for Lok Sabha seat is Rs.70 lakh and for an Assembly constituency, Rs.28 lakh.
NOTA option in EVMs
Mr. Banwar Lal said 6.24 crore voters would exercise their franchise in 69,014 polling stations in the two-phase election and a special camp would be organised in all the polling stations on March 9 ( Sunday) to enable people verify their names in the electoral rolls from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. If the name if missing, they could fill form 6 for inclusion of name and hand it over to the Booth Level Officer present in the camp.
The Electronic voting machines in all the polling stations will have None of the Above Option to enable voters exercise that option.
