ECI team in Maharashtra to review poll preparedness

Mumbai, Sep 27 (IANS) Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar-headed Election Commission of India (ECI) team will hold two-day discussions starting from Friday with various stakeholders, and also review the preparations for the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election.

The team, which was welcomed by the state chief electoral officer S. Chockalingam on Thursday night, will hold discussions with the political parties, state government officers, enforcement agencies, district collectors and Superintendents of Police from 10 a.m. onwards on Friday and Saturday. The CEC along with two Election Commissioners, Ganesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, will address the media on Saturday.

The ECI team on Friday will meet political parties to seek their views. During the day, it will have discussions with the state Chief Electoral Officer, enforcement agencies, the state chief secretary, the director general of police and other administrative secretaries and senior police officers with regard to the deployment of the necessary manpower and law and order situation.On September 28, the ECI team will hold an interactive meeting with the district collectors and superintendents of police to take stock of the ground-level preparations. Thereafter, CEC will address the press conference.The ECI team’s visit is important as Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had recently said that the Assembly election may take place in the second week of November. The term of the present Assembly ends on November 26.The ECI’s visit comes after the state CEO on September 12 and 13 met the deputy district election officers, district collectors and chief district election officers and reviewed the preparations for the elections in 288 Assembly constituencies. The CEO reviewed the status of electronic voting machines, the updated voters’ list, the status of polling material and district-level poll management, especially, the availability of the required number of staff and security arrangements for free and fair elections.Further, the CEO also took stock of the situation of the district-level preparedness for conducting counting smoothly. He also reviewed the plan to start polling stations in high-rise buildings and cooperative societies with over 200 families.

Maharashtra has added 2.4 million new voters during the special drive conducted between August 6 and 20. In view of this, the number of total voters in the state rose to 95.4 million, up from 92.94 million at the end of the Lok Sabha election. Over 2.08 million applications for voter addition and 370,000 applications for name deletion due to death or duplication were received by the Election Commission of India during the special drive.