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EC talks on poll schedule from today

Chief Election Commissioner Manohar Singh Gill has said that discussions to decide the poll schedule would begin at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi today.

Sources said the Commission is considering simultaneous polls to nine state assemblies whose terms expire before March next year. These are Sikkim, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra favours a simultaneous poll to the Lok Sabha and the state assembly, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu is against such a move. The TDP is also against an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. ''There is no question of any alliance with the BJP. We have always said that we were offering only issue-based support.''

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