Date Locked For Andhra Pradesh Elections?

Andhra Pradesh is set for its third election campaign in less than 100 day from today as the Central Election Commission has instructed the regional Electoral Officers to start preparing for the polling duties.

Earlier, the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi issued a curriculum to the regional officers asking them to keep April 16th as the tentative date for the first phase of the polling. This quickly sparked reports that Andhra Pradesh elections are to be held on April 16th.

AP went to polls in the first leg of the polling in 2019 as well, and the same scheduling is repeating in 2024 too with the state to go to polls in the first phase itself. So when the CEO issued a curriculum with April 16th marked as the tentative date, it was believed that this is the polling date in AP.

However, the CEC clarified that April 16 is just the tentative date. ‘Some media queries are coming referring to a circular by @CeodelhiOffice to clarify whether 16.04.2024 is a tentative poll day for #LSElections2024 It is clarified that this date was mentioned only for ‘reference’ for officials to plan activities as per Election Planner of ECI’, the CEC clarified.

The chances are that Andhra Pradesh polling will be held in the first week of April as the CEC usually prefers to complete the first phase of the polling as early as possible. Or in a delayed scenario the elections would be held on or before April 16, most probably. The election code will be announced in roughly three weeks from today and once that is in effect, the polling and counting dates announcement could be out any minute.