Full bench of Election Commission to visit Bengal today after Assam visit

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar would arrive in poll-bound West Bengal to review election preparedness on Wednesday evening.

The commissioners will go directly to West Bengal after visiting Assam.

The commissioners will attend series of meetings with political parties, state administration and election commissioners during its three days visit.

Along with CEC and Election Commissioners the official team will also have Dharmendra Sharma (Director General, Election Commission of India (ECI)), Chandra Bhushan Kumar (deputy election commissioner) and other senior officials.

According to top official sources, immediately after arriving, the officials will hold meetings with State Chief Election officer and state police nodal officer.

Next day, the bench will have direct interaction with representatives of recognised national parties and state political parties. After which, there will be meeting with officials of election-related regulatory agencies.

Meetings with District Election Officers (DEOs) and Police Superintendents (SPs) are also scheduled on the same day.

On January 22, the officials will meet Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Election Commission of India Dharmendra Sharma and other senior state officials.

Commission's visit comes eight days after Deputy Election Commissioner and State In-charge, Sudeep Jain visited West Bengal for the second time.

The commission is determined on conducting a free and fair election. However, according to sources, the strongest action would be taken against poll officials, if complaints are raised.

On January 15, West Bengal state CEO released final voters' list with numbers scaling upto 7,32,94,980, which suggest an increase of about 2.01 per cent.

The numbers of polling booths are likely to increase keeping the situation under pandemic.

The terms of the Legislative Assemblies of five poll-bound states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry -- are coming to an end either in May or in June this year.

The election for Legislative Assembly of West Bengal that comprises 295 seats is to be held this year as the current tenure ends on May 30.