ExplainedElections 2027
Assembly elections 2027: when Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur vote
Five states with 690 assembly seats between them go to the polls in early 2027. What we know about the dates, who governs each state now, how they voted last time, and what has to happen before the schedule is announced.
The short answer
Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur elect new assemblies in early 2027. As of November 10, 2026, the Election Commission has not announced dates. The terms of the Manipur, Goa, Punjab and Uttarakhand assemblies end in March 2027 and Uttar Pradesh's on May 22, 2027, so polling is expected in February and March. The Commission's teams are visiting the five states and plan to finish by December 15, and the schedule is expected after that. In 2022 the same five elections were announced on January 8 and counted together on March 10.
No dates have been announced yet. As of November 10, 2026, the Election Commission of India has not issued a schedule for the five assembly elections due in early 2027: Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. Between them they elect 690 MLAs, and one of them, Uttar Pradesh, sends more members to the Lok Sabha than any other state.
The calendar leaves little room. The assemblies of Manipur, Goa, Punjab and Uttarakhand complete their five-year terms in March 2027, and Uttar Pradesh’s term ends on May 22, 2027. A new House has to be in place before each term runs out, which is why polling is widely expected in February and March.
When will the Election Commission announce the dates?
Most likely after December 15, 2026. Senior Commission officials have been touring the five states since early October to check preparations, and the Commission plans to finish these visits by December 15. The schedule normally follows once the reviews are done.
For comparison, the last round of elections in the same five states was announced on January 8, 2022. Uttar Pradesh then voted in seven phases between February 10 and March 7, Punjab voted in a single phase on February 20, and all five states were counted together on March 10, 2022.
The law gives the Commission some flexibility. Under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a general election to an assembly can be held at any time in the six months before its term ends, so the Commission can club states whose terms end weeks apart into one polling season, as it did in 2022.
The road to the 2027 polls
- Oct 5, 2026Election Commission teams begin state visits, starting with Goa, then Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur.
- Nov 3, 2026Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg reviews preparations in 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh at Meerut.
- Nov 16 to 30, 2026Census self-enumeration window in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand.
- Dec 1, 2026, to Jan 4, 2027Door-to-door census count in the four poll-bound states.
- Dec 15, 2026Target date for the Commission to finish its state reviews; schedule expected after this.
- Mar 2027Terms of the Manipur, Goa, Punjab and Uttarakhand assemblies end.
- May 22, 2027Term of the Uttar Pradesh assembly ends.
Which states vote, and how many seats does each have?
Uttar Pradesh dwarfs the rest. Its 403-member assembly is the largest in the country, and a party or alliance needs 202 seats to form a government. Punjab has 117 seats, Uttarakhand 70, Manipur 60 and Goa 40.
The five states at a glance
Who governs each state now?
The BJP runs four of the five, and the Aam Aadmi Party runs Punjab. Yogi Adityanath has been Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister since 2017 and won a second term in 2022, which was sworn in at Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium on March 25, 2022. Bhagwant Mann of AAP has led Punjab since March 16, 2022, when he took oath at Khatkar Kalan in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district.
In Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami leads a BJP government, and Pramod Sawant leads Goa’s. Manipur’s story is different. Its BJP government under N. Biren Singh resigned on February 9, 2025, amid ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities that has killed at least 306 people since May 2023. President’s rule was imposed on February 13, 2025, and revoked on February 4, 2026, when Y. Khemchand Singh was sworn in as Chief Minister of a BJP-led NDA government.
How did these states vote in 2022?
Four of the five ruling parties won a majority on their own last time; Goa’s BJP fell one short. In Uttar Pradesh the BJP won 255 seats on its own and 273 with its allies, while the Samajwadi Party rose to 111. In Punjab, AAP swept 92 of 117 seats, with the Congress at 18, the Shiromani Akali Dal at 3 and the BJP at 2.
Uttarakhand gave the BJP 47 of 70 seats and the Congress 19, making the BJP the first party to win back-to-back terms in the state, even though Dhami himself lost his own seat of Khatima by 6,579 votes. Goa was the tightest: the BJP won 20 of 40 seats, one short of a majority, and kept power with the support of independents. In Manipur, the BJP won 32 of 60 on its own for the first time.
What is the Election Commission doing to prepare?
Its officials are checking machines, rolls and security in every state. Deputy election commissioners began field visits in October, starting with Goa and then Uttarakhand, rather than the full Commission travelling as it usually does before a schedule. First-level checks of electronic voting machines and VVPAT units are under way in all five states, with engineers from BEL and ECIL inspecting each machine in front of party representatives and on CCTV.
In Uttar Pradesh, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg chaired a review of 18 districts across four divisions at Meerut. According to a statement from the state’s Chief Electoral Officer, Navdeep Rinwa, officials were told to re-examine rejected Form 6 applications, recheck all new entries made since the roll revision, run enrolment drives in Classes 11 and 12 and colleges, set up mobile phone deposit boxes at polling stations, and hand out voter information slips five days before polling.
Why does the census matter for the poll dates?
Because both have to be done in the same months. The Registrar General of India has moved the door-to-door population count in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa and the non-snowbound parts of Uttarakhand forward to December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027, so that it is finished before the elections. Residents of these four states can fill in the census form themselves online from November 16 to 30, and a revisional round runs from January 5 to 9, 2027. The rest of the country is counted with a reference date of March 1, 2027.
What are the big contests to watch?
Each state has its own fight. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP seeks a third straight term for Yogi Adityanath against a Samajwadi Party that won 37 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, four more than the BJP. The roll revision is itself an issue there: the electorate fell from 15.44 crore in October 2025 to 13.39 crore in the final roll of April 10, 2026, and opposition parties have protested what they call irregularities in the exercise.
In Punjab, AAP defends its 2022 landslide. Reports in late October said talks on reviving the BJP and Akali Dal alliance, which broke in September 2020 over the farm laws, were in their final stages, though neither party has announced a deal. In Goa, the Goa Forward Party has chosen to ally with AAP, while the Congress, the main opposition party, has held alliance talks of its own. In Uttarakhand the BJP will contest under Dhami, and in Manipur the first election since the violence will test whether normal campaigning is possible across the hills and the valley.
2027 elections in numbers
- 690assembly seats across the five states
- 403seats in Uttar Pradesh, the largest assembly
- 13.39 crorevoters on Uttar Pradesh's final roll, April 2026
- Jan 8, 2022when the last round in these states was announced
Will Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat vote at the same time?
No, they are due later in 2027. Both states elected their current assemblies in late 2022, so their terms run to about the end of 2027 and they are expected to vote in November and December. The President’s five-year term, which began on July 25, 2022, also ends in July 2027, making 2027 a crowded year for India’s electoral calendar.
The documents
- EC reviews poll preparations in 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh ahead of 2027 Assembly electionsAll India Radio News, November 3, 2026
- Party-wise results, Punjab 2022Election Commission of India, March 10, 2022
- Profile of the 18th Uttar Pradesh AssemblyPRS Legislative Research, May 1, 2022