The Assembly elections in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, while Assam, Kerala and the UT of Puducherry will vote in a single phase on April 9, the Election Commission (EC) announced on Sunday. The elections in Tamil Nadu will be held on April 23.The results for all four states and the sole UT would be declared on May 4, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, announced while addressing a press conference.The model code of conduct came into effect immediately with the announcement of the poll schedule.The Assembly elections are being conducted in the shadow of the controversial special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The SIR in these states (except in Assam, where special revision was conducted) and in Puducherry was conducted between December 2025 and February 2026.Apart from this, Assembly bypolls for eight seats across six states will also take place next month. The results will also be declared on May 4.Bypolls in Maharashtra’s Baramati and Rahuri seats, as well as in Gujarat’s Umreth, will be held on April 23. The byelections in Goa’s Ponda, Tripura’s Dharmanagar, Nagaland’s Koridang, as well as in two seats of Karnataka — Bagalkot and Davangere South, will take place on April 9.All bypolls have been necessitated due to deaths of sitting MLAs.Baramati is the most significant Assembly seat which will go to the polls, after its MLA and NCP chief Ajit Pawar died in a plane crash on January 28.In West Bengal, the Assembly elections will be held in two phases whereas in 2021, these were conducted in eight phases. EC sources indicated that concerns regarding poll violence were a major reason behind the move.Sources, however, indicated that another reason was to mitigate the anger among West Bengal voters towards the SIR, in which 62 lakh electors’ names have been deleted, while another 60 lakh names have been kept under judicial adjudication.Of the 294 Assembly seats in West Bengal, 152 seats will vote in the first phase on April 23, while the remaining 142 seats will vote on April 29.Significantly, most of the constituencies bordering Bangladesh, namely Murshidabad, Malda, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling Uttar and Dakshin Dinajpur, will go to the polls on April 23.Assam, where the Assembly elections were held in three phases in 2021, polling will be held in a single phase.Responding to queries on the fate of 60 lakh voters in West Bengal who have been placed under judicial adjudication, Kumar assured that those names, which would be there in the supplementary list to be released by judicial officers, would be included in the electoral rolls.On the timeline of release of the supplementary list, the CEC said, “the learned judges are looking at it on a case-to-case basis.”On fears of election-related violence, especially in West Bengal, Kumar said, “No violence will be tolerated. We have zero tolerance towards this and strict action will be taken if any such cases are brought to the cognisance of the EC.”The CEC did not respond to questions regarding allegations of bias towards the ruling BJP levelled by the Opposition parties, and also on the notice submitted in Parliament for his removal. “The EC cannot engage in political statements,” he said.On the curtailed phases of polling in West Bengal and Assam, Kumar said after holding detailed discussions with parties, it was decided to reduce the phases to ensure voter convenience.He further informed that arrangements would be made to file FIRs against deepfake or AI-generated videos during the campaigning.The Assembly elections are being held after the SIR was conducted in these states, with Tamil Nadu witnessing the deletion of 74 lakh voters, West Bengal 62 lakh voters and Kerala 8.5 lakh voters.The tenure of the West Bengal Assembly will end on May 7, while the Assam Assembly’s term comes to an end on May 20. Similarly, the Kerala Assembly’s tenure will end on May 23, while the Tamil Nadu House’s tenure is ending on May 10.West Bengal has 294 Assembly seats, Assam has 126, Kerala 140, Tamil Nadu 234 and Puducherry 30.