New Delhi, March 02 2009: The much-awaited schedule for the Lok Sabha elections was announced on Monday afternoon, by Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami.

The country will go to polls from April 16 to May 13.Counting of votes will be done on May 16 and the 15th Lok Sabha will be constituted by June two.

In Manipur the election will be held in two phases.

The Outer Parliamentary Constituency will go to the polls on April 16 while the Inner seat will vote on April 22. The Inner seat was supposed to go to the polls on April 23, but since Khongjom Day falls on this date (A State holiday), an exception has been made and the polling date has been fixed on April 22. An official notice issued by the Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur today said that the date of notification for the Outer seat will March 23, while it will be 28 March for the Inner.

The last date for nomination for the Outer is March 30 while for the Inner it is April 4. Scrutiny for the Outer will be held on March 31 while it will be April 6 for the Inner, said the notice.

The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers for the Outer has been fixed on April 2 for the Outer while for the Inner the last date is April 8. Counting for both the seats will be held on May 16. Though the State Government had previously requisitioned 86 Coys of security personnel, the Centre has decided to deploy 69 Coys of security personnel.

To help in the smooth conduct of the polls, four helicopters will be at the disposal of the Election office while 6 to 12 boats will be utilised, especially for Vangai Range and Tipaimukh.

The State election control room will become operational from tomorrow while the formal election notification will be issued on March 23. Polls will be conducted in 124 constituencies on April 16, 141 constituencies on April 23, 107 constituencies on April 30, 85 constituencies on May 7 and 86 constrituencies on May 13. Five-phased polls will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh, Bihar will have four-phased elections, 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, N Gopalaswami announced at a press conference.

Remaining 15 States and seven union territories will have one-day polling.

Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Orissa will simultaneously hold assembly polls.

On Sunday, the President rejected the controversial recommendation by the Chief Election Commissioner for the removal of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.

The President�s decision will now pave the way for Chawla�s elevation as CEC after Gopalaswami demits office on April 20. The Election Commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami decided the dates of the general elections after completing consultation process with political leaders, home secretary and secretaries of key Ministries.

Earlier in the day, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) led by Ajit Singh announced its entry into the Opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The RLD will have a poll pact with the main NDA constituent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In a late development on Sunday, the Trinamool Congress formed an alliance with Congress in West Bengal to fight the Lok Sabha elections against the Left Front.

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