A team from the senior officials of the Election Commission of India (ECI), led by the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, arrived on two-day visit to review the poll preparedness in Gujarat that goes for the Assembly elections in the next two months.
On Monday, the Commission held a meeting with all District Election Officers (DEOs) and law enforcement officials (police) to take stock of the preparations regarding conducting of the assembly polls in the state.
“The Commission is reviewing poll preparedness with district officials, enforcement agencies and would be meeting Chief Secretary and DGP tomorrow . The Commission announces poll schedule after taking a holistic review of logistics and preparations,” the ECI posted on its Twitter handle after the meeting.
According to sources, the CEC Rajiv Kumar Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey held meeting with DEOs/SPs/Range IGs/DIGs to review poll preparedness for smooth conduct of forthcoming assembly elections in the state.
The Commission officials will be holding separate meetings with the State Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar and the DGP Ashish Bhatia on Tuesday.
Normally, before announcing the schedule for the state polls, the commission top officials visit the state to take stock of preparations and
Besides the officials of the state, representatives of the BJP and Congress also met the ECI team to make their suggestions regarding the conduct of the state assembly elections.
Meanwhile, the state BJP chief C.R. Paatil on Monday indicates that the Gujarat Assembly elections would be completed by November-end, around two weeks before the polls were held last time.
In Gandhinagar also, there is a buzz that compared the last time in 2017, the elections this would be held slightly earlier.
“I feel that the elections will be completed by the end of November. In 2012 and 2017, the elections were held from December 5. But this time, they may be advanced by about 10-12 days is what I feel. No one has told me this and I haven’t spoken to anyone,” Mr. Paatil said in a campaign programme in North Gujarat.
In 2017, the first phase polling was held on December 9 while the second phase polling was conducted on December 14th and the counting was conducted on December 18.
This time, the sources from Gandhinagar suggest that, the voting for the 182 Assembly seats in two phase could be completed by the end of November.
