Assembly elections 2017: Exit polls to be announced today

The exit polls for Assembly elections has been prohibited by EC till 5:30 pm on March 9.

Delhi: The exit polls for the recently held Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur will be announced at around 5:30 pm on Thursday.

Earlier, the exit polls by various agencies were expected to release their data on March 8,but were barred by the Election Commission till 5:30 pm on March 9.

The EC's move came in the wake of deaths of Chand Shekhar, the Samajwadi Party candidate from Alapur (SC) and Kanwasi, the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate in Karna Prayag.

Thus, the polling, originally scheduled for February 27, was pushed back to Thursday.

The deadline of the exit polls earlier was 30 minutes after the conclusion of seven-phase polls on March 8.

"Conducting of exit poll and disseminating result of any exit poll now stands prohibited till 5.30 pm of March 9, 2017," the poll panel had said earlier.

The adjournment came after the deaths of Chand Shekhar, the Samajwadi Party candidate from Alapur (SC) and Kanwasi, the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate in Karna Prayag.

The highlight of the acrimonious campaign for the March 8 polls for 40 seats in eastern UP was the show of strength by the BJP, the SP-Congress combine and the BSP in PM Narendra Modi's Varanasi constituency where he camped for three days.

Over sixty percent polling was reported across seven districts of Uttar Pradesh for 40 assembly seats in the final phase of state assembly elections, while 86 per cent votes were cast in the second and final phase of the Manipur Assembly polls on Wednesday.