Setting the stage for intense electoral campaigns in the coming weeks, the Election Commission Sunday announced single-phase Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry (April 9) and Tamil Nadu (April 23), and two-phased polling in West Bengal on April 23 and April 29, down from the eight phases last time.

Counting of votes will be held on May 4, the Election Commission said.

“Elections in all these four states and Union Territory of Puducherry shall be violence-free and inducement-free. The Commission will take strict action if anything to the contrary is noticed and reported,” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar told at a press conference in New Delhi.

With the announcement of the schedule by the CEC, accompanied by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, the Model Code of Conduct came into force.

The four states and the Union Territory have a total of 17.4 crore electors across 824 constituencies at 2.18 lakh polling stations, the CEC said. The EC had visited the states and the UT over the last month to review preparations.

Asked why the EC had decided to reduce the number of phases in West Bengal, which has seen poll-related violence in the past, the CEC said the Commission held detailed deliberations and “found it necessary to reduce the number of phases and bring it down to an extent where it is convenient for everybody.”

Of the total 25 lakh election staff to be deployed across the four states and one UT, around 8.5 lakh security personnel will be pressed into service, according to the EC.

It also announced bye-elections for a total of eight Assembly constituencies in Goa, Karnataka, Nagaland and Tripura on April 9, and Gujarat and Maharashtra on April 23, with counting of votes on May 4.

The EC’s announcement came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Kolkata, kicking off the campaign. He accused West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress government of trying to protect “infiltrators” during the recently-concluded Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

A day earlier, a TMC-led Opposition motion to impeach the CEC for alleged biased conduct during the SIR was submitted in both Houses of Parliament.

Asked about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent sit-in protest against the SIR, the CEC chose not to comment.

Starting in June 2025, the EC has conducted the SIR in 11 states and three UTs so far, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The exercise involved the creation of the electoral rolls from scratch, with all registered electors required to submit enumeration forms and some categories of electors required to submit additional documents and appear for hearings to prove their eligibility, including citizenship.

While announcing the second phase of the SIR in October last year, the CEC said that Assam had been left out of the national exercise as the National Register of Citizens in the state was yet to be published.

So far, the exercise has led to the electorate being reduced by 18.98 crore across Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Goa, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Kerala, according to EC data.

The SIR in Uttar Pradesh is ongoing, with the final roll scheduled to be published on April 10, while the EC is planning on carrying out the exercise in the remaining states/UTs from April.

The last intensive revision of electoral rolls across states was carried out in the early 2000s. Since then, the electoral rolls have been updated annually, and before each election.

The EC, while ordering the SIR on June 24, 2025, said it felt the need for the exercise due to rapid urbanisation, migration and possibility of electors being registered at multiple places. The Opposition, however, saw the exercise as a check of citizenship through the backdoor, with several petitioners moving the Supreme Court challenging the EC’s powers to do so. The matter is pending in the court.