EC gearing up for LS polls

Gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections sometime in April-May, the Election Commission has scheduled a series of consultations with leaders of various political parties and poll officials beginning tomorrow.

The Commission would begin the exercise by holding discussions with seven national and 40 state parties on various poll related issues.

The EC will have a day-long review meeting with the Chief Electoral Officers of all states and Union Territories on February four to review progress in revision of electoral rolls, the status of photo electoral rolls and distribution of Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC).

The Commission would hold discussions with Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of all states and Union Territories for two days from February five.

The meeting to be chaired by Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami and other two Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and S Y Quraishi would also discuss an "advanced preparatory measure" for the massive democratic exercise.

The electoral rolls, the first and foremost requirement for conducting the elections, are ready in all the states as of January 22, except in six states and Jammu and Kashmir which went to assembly polls recently. The rolls in these seven states would be ready by February 10.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of reports quoting Quraishi that the Lok Sabha polls could be held between April 8 and May 15. However, the EC made it clear that no date has been finalised so far. The new Lok Sabha needs to be constituted by May 31.

The Lok Sabha elections in the country are the largest electoral exercise in the world involving 671 million voters.