All 30 constituencies of the 16th Puducherry Legislative Assembly will go to polls.Addressing a press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Janesh Kumar said elections in four states and one Union Territory must be conducted in a free, fair and violence-free manner. He said the Electoral Commission will take strong action against any attempts at violence or inducement and ensure transparency in the counting process and results announcement.
Puducherry elections 2026: Key dates
For Puducherry, the elections will be held in phases on April 9 and the results will be declared on May 4. The Union Territory is participating in the polls along with Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.The Election Commission has announced polling for all 30 assembly seats in Puducherry, where nearly 9.44 lakh voters are eligible to vote.
Pondicherry voters and polling stations
According to data shared by the Election Commission, Puducherry has about 4.43 lakh male voters, 500,000 female voters and 139 third gender voters, with a total electorate of about 9.44 lakh.Among them, there are 54 centenarian voters in the federal territories, 6,034 voters aged 85 and above, and 12,204 people with disabilities. It also has 23,033 first-time voters aged 18 to 19, about 187,000 voters in the 20 to 29 age group and 328 service voters.Voting will be held at 1,099 polling stations, 610 of which are in urban areas and 489 in rural areas. The Election Commission said the average number of voters per polling station in Puducherry was 859, with the number of voters ranging from 750 to 900 in the five polling districts.
The committee also said that Puducherry will have 30 model polling stations, 60 polling stations run by women and 4 polling stations run by persons with disabilities. Importantly, polling stations will be 100% webcast.
What the Electoral Commission said
CEC Gyanesh Kumar said that a total of 174 million voters are eligible to vote in the five assembly elections in 824 constituencies. In four states and one Union Territory, voting will be conducted at about 2.19 lakh polling stations, with nearly 2.5 million election officials deployed.Kumar said the total number of voters in the five polling areas is equivalent to the population of countries such as Australia, France, South Africa, Germany and Canada. He also said that a pure electoral roll was the cornerstone of democracy, stressing that no eligible elector should be excluded and no ineligible elector should be included.Representatives of electoral bodies from 20 countries will visit states where polls are going to be held to observe the electoral process in India, the CEC added, calling it a “festival of democracy”.
What happened in Puducherry elections 2021?
The last assembly elections in Puducherry were held in 2021, when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured a simple majority. N Rangaswamy of the All India National Congress (AINRC) was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the fourth time.In that election, the NDA won 16 seats with 44.2% of the vote, while the UPA won eight seats.From a political party perspective, AINRC emerged as the largest party with 10 seats and 26.2% of the vote. DMK won 6 seats with 18.8% vote share while the BJP also won 6 seats with 13.8% vote share. The Congress won two seats with 15.9% of the vote.
NDA Seat Sharing Plan 2026
The AINRC-BJP alliance has finalized a seat-sharing arrangement ahead of the 2026 general elections. As per the formula, AINRC will contest 16 seats while the BJP-led coalition will contest 14 seats.The alliance said it is also in talks with the AIADMK. In the last election, five seats were allotted to the AIADMK in the BJP’s quota.
Puducherry Election Result Date 2026
The results of the 2026 Puducherry Assembly elections will be announced on May 4, when votes will be counted along with the other four state elections.
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