2023 assembly elections: The semi-final before ‘final’ Lok Sabha polls in 2024

The Northeast states where assembly elections are slated to be held are Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya. They will be the first to have assembly polls, most likely in February-March.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections scheduled to be held in 2024, the several assembly elections in 2023 is being seen as the semi-final. 

News agency PTI quoted people familiar in the Election Commission of India that the elections in the three states will be held together, followed by polls in Karnataka later.

Here’s taking a look at the political scenario in these states

While Tripura has a BJP government, in Nagaland, the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party is in power.

National People’s Party, the only party from the North-East to have a national party recognition, runs the government in Meghalaya.

The term of the 224-member Karnataka legislative assembly ends on May 24. Polls in the BJP-ruled state to form a new assembly could be held in late April or early May.

Tentative assembly election dates

The last part of 2023 would witness a series of assembly polls with terms of legislative assemblies of Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana ending on different dates in December this year and January 2024.

While the term of the 40-member Mizoram assembly ends on 17 December, the tenures of the Chhattisgarh and the Madhya Pradesh legislative assemblies conclude on 3 January and 6 January, 2024, respectively.

The tenures of the Rajasthan and Telangana assemblies end on January 14 and 16 January, 2024, respectively.

Polls in these five states being held together cannot be ruled out at this stage.

Besides the nine scheduled polls, assembly elections in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir can also not be ruled out this year.

On 9 December, sources had said that elections in Jammu and Kashmir may be held in the summer of 2023 after winter conditions subside, and the timing would depend on the security scenario. 

The final electoral roll of Jammu and Kashmir was published on 25 November last year paving the way for polls, the first since Article 370 provisions were abrogated and the erstwhile state was bifurcated into Union territories in 2019.