The counting of votes in the Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim will happen on June 2 instead of June 4, the Election Commission announced on Sunday.

The date of polling in the two states, April 19, will remain unchanged.

The poll panel said on Sunday that the date of counting of votes in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim needed to be done earlier because the term of their legislative Assemblies will expire on June 2. The election process needs to be completed before the term of the Assembly expires.

However, there will be no change in the date of counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls in the two states.

On Saturday, the Election Commission announced that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. The results will be announced on June 4.

Besides Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. While voting for Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh will take place on May 13, the election in Odisha will be held in two phases on May 13 and May 20.

The results of the Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha will also be announced on June 4 along with those of the parliamentary elections.

In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won 41 of the 60 seats in Arunachal Pradesh’s Assembly.

In Sikkim, the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha had won 17 of the 32 seats in the state’s Assembly in 2019. The remaining 15 seats were won by the Sikkim Democratic Front.