Election Commission to announce Lok Sabha poll schedule on March 16; BJP eyes third win, Opposition looks at stopping Modi juggernaut

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 14

The ruling BJP will eye a historic third win with the Election Commission all set to declare the schedule for the 18th Lok Sabha election at 3 pm on Saturday.

The EC spokesperson in a post on X after the full panel meet on Friday, said, “Press Conference by Election Commission to announce schedule for #GeneralElections2024 & some State Assemblies will be held at 3 pm tomorrow ie Saturday, 16th March. It will be live-streamed on social media platforms of the ECI.”

In 2019, the election was announced on March 10.

The BJP, which has already declared 267 of the 543 candidates for the polls, has set itself a target of crossing 370 seats with a goal of 400 plus for the ruling NDA coalition.

The opposition led by Congress is seeking to halt the BJP in its tracks with seat-sharing deals under a ramshackle INDIA alliance which has failed to reach an understanding in key states like UP, West Bengal and Bihar.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has gone alone declaring all 42 candidates and spurning Congress overtures.

In Bihar, the architect of INDIA alliance Nitish Kumar dumped the grouping and returned to the NDA.

In UP too, RLD, a previous INDIA ally, joined the NDA.

In Kerala, the ruling Left partner CPI announced Annie Raja as a candidate against former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad and has asked Gandhi to challenge the BJP elsewhere rather than another INDIA ally.

The elections could be seven-phased.

The Congress has announced only 82 seats yet and faces a fight for its survival while regional parties like the DMK in Tamil Nadu, BRS in Telangana, SP and BSP in UP would look to hold on to their core constituencies in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh respectively.

For the BJP the major challenge will be South India minus Karnataka.

In Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, the BJP has no Lok Sabha presence.

In Karnataka, it holds 25 of 28 seats and in Telangana 4 out of 17.

The BJP will focus big in West Bengal, Odisha and south India.

Alliance talks with the BJD are on in Odisha and in Andhra the BJP has arrived at a seat-sharing pre-poll pact with the TDP and Jana Sena Party.

In Punjab, the BJP is in talks with the Akali Dal for a pre-election tie-up.