EC Declares General Election 2019 Dates: UP, West Bengal & Bihar to Vote in 7 Phases

The Election Commission of India announced the General Election 2019 dates on March 10, 2019. The election will be held in seven phases across Bharat and the final counting of votes will take place on May 23.

West Bengal will vote in the General Election 2019, in seven phases.

1. Two constituencies – Coochbehar & Alipurduars – will go to polls in Phase-1 on April 11
2. Three constituencies – Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling & Raiganj – will go to polls in Phase-2 on April 18
3. Four constituencies – Balurghat, Maldaha Uttar, Maldaha Dakshin, Jangipur & Murshidabad – will go to polls in Phase-3 on April 23
4. Eight constituencies – Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman – Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur & Birbhum – will go to polls in Phase-4 on April 29
5. Seven constituencies – Bangaon, Barrackpur, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Hooghly & Arambag – will go to polls in Phase-5 on May 6
6. Eight constituencies – Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura & Bishnupur – will go to polls in Phase-6 on May 12
7. Nine constituencies – Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin & Kolkata Uttar – will go to polls in Phase-7 on May 19

The Prime Minister tweets: “The festival of democracy… are here.” as the Election Commission of India announced the General Election 2019 dates.

The festival of democracy, Elections are here.

I urge my fellow Indians to enrich the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with their active participation. I hope this election witnesses a historic turnout.

I particularly call upon first time voters to vote in record numbers.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 10, 2019

The Election Commission of India also set clear guidelines with regards to using social media by political parties and candidates in elections.

1. Candidates are required to furnish details of his/her social media account (if any) at the time of filing of nominations.
2. Since Social Media is also electronic media by definition, all political advertisement on Social Media will also require precertification from Media Certification & Monitoring Committees (MCMC).
3. Candidates and political parties shall include all expenditure on campaigning, including expenditure on the advertisement on social media in their election expenditure account. This among other things shall include payments made to internet companies and websites for carrying advertisements and also campaign-related operational expenditure on making creative development of content, salaries, and wages paid to the team of workers employed to maintain their social media account.
4. All the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct shall also apply to the content being posted on social media by candidates and political parties.

Source: https://thecrazeventure.in/general-election-2019.pdf (by https://eci.gov.in issue date: Sunday 10 March 2019)