New Delhi: The Election Commission will issue notifications on November 7 setting in motion process for Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and New Delhi on December 1.

The filing of nominations in the four states would start from the day of notifications by respective State Governors.

While the last date for filing nominations is November 14, the scrutiny would take place the next day. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures is November 17.

The notification for the Assembly polls in Mizoram has already been issued on October 27 and the polling would be held on November 20.

A high-pitch campaign for the polls, the last major electoral battle before next year's Lok Sabha polls, is on the cards as some of the major political parties have almost finalised their lists of candidates in the four Congress-ruled states.

Congress was the first to be off the bloc when it announced most of its nominees in Madhya Pradesh.

But Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stole a march by releasing nominees for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and New Delhi and announcing that its Chief Ministerial candidates Uma Bharati, Vasundhara Raje and Madan Lal Khurana, all Lok Sabha MPs, would contest the Assembly polls in the three states.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu and several party leaders would be the key campaigners in the polls.

Other senior party leaders would join Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the electioneering.

While the counting of votes in Mizoram would be taken up on December 2, in other States it would be on December 4.

PTI