Lok Sabha polls will be held in five phases from April 16 to May 13, the Election Commission announced today.
The five phased polls will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh while Bihar will have four-phased elections, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami told a press conference.
Maharashtra and West Bengal will witness three phased polls while Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Punjab will have elections in two phases.
Remaining 15 states and seven union territories will have one-day polling.
The counting of votes will take place on May 16 and the 15th Lok Sabha will be constituted by June 2.
In the first phase, 124 constituencies will go to polls on April 16. 141 constituencies will witness balloting in the second phase on April 23, 107 seats in third phase on April 30, 85 seats in fourth phase on May 7 and 86 constituencies in the last phase on May 13.
Elections to Assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.
Photo electoral rolls will be used for the first time in 522 out of the 543 constituencies, Gopalaswami said.
499 constituencies have been redrawn in the delimitation exercise. Delimitation could not be undertaken in Andhra, Assam, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland, Gopalaswami said.
At least 71.4 crore will be the number of eligible voters, an increase of 4.3 crore over the 2004 figure of 67.1 crore.
