Election Commission to announce Gujarat poll schedule at noon

The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the Gujarat assembly polls at 12 noon on Thursday.

The poll panel has convened a press conference to announce the schedule.

The term of the 182-member Gujarat assembly ends on February 18 next year.

Citing the convention followed in 2017, the poll panel had not announced the Gujarat election schedule when it came out with Himachal Pradesh poll dates last month.

While elections in Himachal Pradesh will be held in a single phase on November 12, the counting of votes will take place on December 8.

By keeping the counting date for Himachal Pradesh nearly a month after the polling, the commission had given a clear hint that votes for Gujarat would also be counted on December 8.

In 2017, the polls in the two states were announced on different dates but the counting took place together on December 18.

Floods in Gujarat had led the EC to hold polls in the state after the Himachal Pradesh poll schedule was announced.