Five places are going to polls — Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Between them, around 17 crore people will vote across 824 seats. Every single result drops on May 4.
The Election Commission has moved in already. Model Code of Conduct is live. Politicians cannot announce new schemes or make big promises on government money anymore — at least not officially.
Assam — Ten Years of BJP, Can It Last?
Assam has not seen a non-BJP government since 2016. Sarbananda Sonowal ran it first, then Himanta Biswa Sarma took over. Now Sarma is back asking voters for round three.
That has never happened in Assam before — three consecutive terms for one party. Whether it happens now depends on whether Congress, AGP, AIUDF and UPPL can stop fighting each other long enough to fight the BJP.
Two and a half crore people vote here on April 9 across 126 seats.
Nomination deadline — March 23. Last withdrawal — March 26.
West Bengal — The Rematch Everyone Saw Coming
Mamata Banerjee has run Bengal since 2011. She survived a serious BJP challenge in 2021 and is going again. The BJP’s answer this time — send Suvendu Adhikari to Bhabanipur, right into Mamata territory.
Adhikari and Mamata fought in Nandigram in 2021. That result went to the wire. Now they are setting up for another round.
294 seats. Two phases — April 23 and April 29. The Congress and Left are also in the game but rebuilding from a low base.
Phase 1 nominations close April 6. Phase 2 nominations close April 9.
Kerala — Same Fight, Different Year
Kerala swings. Left wins, Congress wins, Left wins. It has been going like that for decades.
The Left is currently in power but came out of recent local body elections looking shaky. The Congress-led UDF smells blood. The BJP wants to finally crack a state where it gets decent votes but rarely wins seats.
April 9 is polling day. 140 seats. Nearly 2.71 crore voters going to 25,231 booths.
Nominations close March 23.
Tamil Nadu — New Alliances, Same Old Battle
DMK is defending. AIADMK lost last time and has now partnered with BJP hoping two is better than one. Two newer outfits — Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam and Naam Tamizhar Katchi — are throwing themselves into the mix and could genuinely upset calculations in close seats.
Tamil Nadu is the biggest of the five — 5.67 crore voters, 234 seats.
Voting on April 23. Nominations close April 6.
Puducherry — Small Place, Real Stakes
Thirty seats. Under ten lakh voters. Chief Minister N Rangasamy and his AINRC-BJP coalition want to stay.
Simple enough on paper. But in a territory this small, a few hundred votes here and there decides everything. Among those voting this time — 23,000 first-timers who have never pressed a button before.
Voting April 9. Nominations close March 23.
The Day That Matters — May 4
Every state, every seat, every result — same day.
In Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is leading the BJP’s campaign for a third consecutive term, something no party has managed to pull off in the state before.In Bengal, Mamata is trying to hold off a BJP that refuses to give up. In Kerala, the Left and Congress are slugging it out for control of a state that keeps changing its mind. In Tamil Nadu, a new alliance is taking on a sitting government with serious resources and incumbency. And in Puducherry, a small coalition is asking voters for another chance.
Across all five, 17.4 crore people will walk into polling booths and make their choice. The counting happens on the same day for everyone.
May 4 is going to be a long day.
