New Delhi, Aug 31 - The three Congress-ruled states of Haryana, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh will elect new assemblies Oct 13 in the first popularity test after the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

The Election Commission said the results of the single-phase balloting will be known Oct 22.

Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla said the date of polling was decided after studying climatic conditions, academic schedules, festivals, law and order condition and availability of central police forces.

Chawla, flanked by Election Commissioners S.Y. Quraishi and V.S. Sampath, told a press conference that the date of issue of notification was Sep 18, the last date for nominations Sep 25 and the last date for withdrawal was Sep 29.

Arunachal Pradesh has a 60-member assembly. The Maharashtra legislature has 288 seats and Haryana 90. There will be 82,028 polling stations in Maharashtra, 12,894 in Haryana and 2,061 in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Oct 13 contest will be the first electoral battle in India since the Congress retained power in the Lok Sabha elections of April-May

The main contenders for power in Maharashtra will be the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on the one hand and the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the other.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and BJP, having parted ways, will separately take on the Congress in Haryana.