Schedule for Lok Sabha polls likely to be out on Feb 18 or 26

Campaign likely to start in real earnest after Holi on March 17, leading up to a five-phase election through April

The Election Commission, according to informed government sources, is considering either February 18 or 26 to hold a press conference and announce the schedule for the coming general elections.

After the previous Lok Sabha elections, in 2009, the prime minister and his council of ministers (19 members) had taken oath on May 22.

The campaign this time is expected to start in real earnest after Holi (March 17), leading up to a five-phase election through April, but all eyes will be on the press conference because a code of conduct preventing the government from announcing policy decisions will kick in immediately after that.

That leaves the government with just about five or six weeks to roll out vote-winning schemes. Top bureaucrats said one scheme — of providing mobile telephones for free to people below a certain income level — had re-surfaced.

The talks of this scheme were earlier doing the rounds before the Independence Day of 2013. The Centre had asked officials to estimate the cost involved but it had turned out to be unviable.

In 2009, the Prime Minister and a council of ministers with 19 members took oath on 22 May.