The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the Assam government not to declare a holiday on March 26 for the celebration of the Holi festival in all the poll-bound districts. However, the other districts, where elections will be taking place in the second and third phases, are allowed to do it.
Assam general administration department commissioner and secretary M S Manivannan on March 21 issued a notification in this regard to all the deputy commissioners in the state.
“The Election Commission of India has already issued notification for holding of General Election and the first phase is on March 19, 2024. As per the ECI’s order, it is hereby directed that no district commissioner (DC) of districts going for polls in the first phase, can declare a local holiday on 26th March 2024 on account of the ensuing Dol Jatra (Holi), as it will impact the nomination process,” read the notification.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections in 14 Lok Sabha seats of Assam will be conducted in three phases – April 19 and 26, and May 7. Five seats, including Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, and, Jorhat will go to polls in the first phase.
Kaziranga emerged as the new seat after ECI’s delimitation last year. While a few old MP seats, including Kaliabor, from which Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi won in 2014 and 2019, were abolished.
Kaziranga includes 10 assembly constituencies from three districts – Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat.
This means Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Jorhat, and three more districts – Nagaon, Hojai and Golaghat are not allowed to declare the Holi festival a local holiday.
The ECI in its notification issued on March 20 stated that the last date for nominations for these Lok Sabha seats is March 27, and the last date of withdrawal of nominations is March 30. The applications will be scrutinised on March 27.
According to state government officials, no candidate has filed a nomination in these five seats, and it is expected that most of the leading political parties will file it around March 25.
In the second phase, the election will be conducted in five seats – Silchar (SC), Karimganj, Diphu (ST) Darang-Udalguri and Nagaon. In the third phase, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Dhubri and Guwahati will go to polls.
In the second phase, the last date of nominations is on April 4, scrutiny is on April 5, and the last date of withdrawal is on April 8. For the third phase, the last date for nominations is April 19, scrutiny is on April 20, and the final day for withdrawal is April 22.
