Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa will be held between February 4 and March 8, the Election Commission announced on Wednesday.

The Model Code of Conduct for the Centre, the State governments, political parties and their candidates comes into immediate effect, it said.

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Polls will be held in a total of 690 Assembly constituencies. In the 403 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, the elections will be conducted in seven phases from February 11 to March 8.

Elections in the 60 constituencies of Manipur will be held in two phases on March 4 and 8; Goa (40) and Punjab (117) will go to the polls on February 4, and Uttarakhand (70) on February 15. The counting will be carried out on March 11.

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said all candidates have been directed to open bank accounts, and pay for all expenses above ₹20,000 through cheques.

Also, each candidate would have to file a separate affidavit in the form of a “no-demand certificate” declaring that there are no dues on account of water, electricity, rent for government accommodation in the past decade or any other such services.

“The maximum limit for expenses for each candidate in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand is ₹28 lakh. In Goa and Manipur, the limit is ₹20 lakh,” he said.

The EC has issued Standard Operating Procedures for the first and the last 72 hours of the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct to ensure a smooth election process.