PM to face voters on May 5

Advani's fate to be decided on April 20, Sonia's on April 26

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's constituency, Lucknow, will go to the polls on May5; Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani's fate will be decided at Gandhinagar on April 20; the people of Hazaribagh will decide whether to return Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha to the Lok Sabha on April 20 and Human Resources Development Minister Murali Manohar Joshi will face the polls from Allahabad on May 5.

In the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi's constituency Amethi will have elections on April 26. If Laloo Yadav is indeed contesting from Chhapra against Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, he will face election April 26; and Mayawati, if she decides to contest from Akbarpur again, will face voters on April 26.

Sikkim, Karnataka, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh will have assembly elections coinciding with the days the parliamentary constituencies go the polls.

Announcing the dates for the Lok Sabha polls Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishna Murthy said this time, ballot papers will not have a column that will enable voters to vote for "none of the above".

Such a column was proposed to be included in the ballot paper. The EC wrote to the government on this issue, he said, "some time ago".

But the government wrote back, informing that "it would have to call an all party meeting to develop a consensus on this issue" the CEC said.

Krishna Murthy had a word of warning as well as advice for all the actors in the election - political parties, voters, the bureaucracy and the candidates.

He said political parties must check the antecedents of their representatives. He said the average turnout of voters in the elections had been 50 -55 per cent and he hoped this election would yield a higher turnout.

He warned the bureaucracy to ensure impartiality in the conduct of the polls. Refusing to name the states, he said in previous elections complaints had been received about the bureaucracy entrusted with the task of holding the election.

This time, serious action would be taken against officials. He asked the candidates not to violate the upper limit of expenditure.