Massive speculations triggered after a circular from the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Delhi, dated January 19, 2024 addressed to 11 district officials mentioned April 16, 2024, as a tentative date for Lok Sabha Polls.

The circular said, “for the ensuing General Election to the Lok Sabha 2024, the Commission has tentatively given the Poll Day as 16.04.2024 for the purpose of reference and to calculate Start and End dates in the Election Planner.”

The communication triggered massive speculations, some even believing the rumour that the final election dates have been released. Quickly jumping in to clarify, the CEO Delhi later released a statement explaining that nothing has been finalised yet and the date given is a tentative dummy date for all to start preparing for the final showdown. The statement also said that the purpose of giving a dummy date was mainly to “plan activities” and the date was “tentative” and that the date was mentioned only for ‘reference’ for officials to plan activities as per Election Planner of ECI.

Media reports said that the election dates are likely to be announced by last week of February or March so that the election schedule is smoothly executed by end of May.