EC full bench in city to review poll preparedness

Kolkata: The full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) which arrived in the city late on Wednesday evening will be holding a series of meetings with the political parties and senior administrative officials of the state government on Thursday to review the Lok Sabha poll preparedness in Bengal.

Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner of India, is scheduled to hold a press conference on Friday afternoon before leaving for Delhi in the evening.

The Election Commission is slated to begin its day-long proceedings at a seven-star hotel in Central Kolkata at 9.30 am through one-to-one meetings with nine political parties of the state. Each of them has been allotted 10 minutes time in which the parties will place their demands before the ECI.

The Trinamool Congress on Thursday did not spell out their subject of discussion with the ECI. "Let us visit the full bench on Thursday," TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said.

Congress leader Debabrata Basu said: "The time is very short. We will urge the Commission to follow the method that was adopted in the Lok Sabha polls 2011.

The Left Front lost the elections but voting was peaceful and there was hardly any incident of violence."

BJP sources said they will press for adequate Central forces for fair and peaceful polls in the state. The Left parties like the CPI(M) and the Forward Bloc refused to comment anything on their discussion with the ECI. The meeting with the political parties will be followed by interaction with the District Magistrates (DMs) and Superintendents of Police (SPs) of all districts. This will be held in two phases — from 11.30 am to 4.30 pm with an hour's break for lunch in the afternoon.

The ECI will also hold meetings with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and nodal officers of the state police from 5 pm to 6 in the evening.

On Friday, the ECI will be holding an hour-long meeting with the nodal officer and similar offices of a number of state departments like Excise, IT, Transport, Commercial Tax, Railways and Airport as well. The scheduled press meet will be preceded by a meeting with the state Chief Secretary and Director General of Police.