EC on a two-day visit to Bihar from Friday

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The Election Commission (EC) has begun its final preparations for the Assembly elections in the state. The full commission will be visiting Bihar on Friday and Saturday to finalise the poll dates.

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti along with Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha will take stock of preparations for Bihar Assembly elections, which the EC wants to hold before festival season begins in late October. The decision came after the poll body recently published the final electoral rolls in Bihar.

Soon after the publication of electoral rolls, the state electoral machinery will commence the process of updating electoral rolls to ensure that those left were included. Interestingly, voters of 18 constituencies in the state will get electoral rolls in Urdu also, in a first of its kind decision taken by the Commission in several years.

The Commissioners will meet top administration and police officials besides representatives of political parties before taking a call on fixing the poll schedule.

The Commission is looking at a window before festival season starts late October or to squeeze some phases between Dussehra and Diwali for holding Assembly polls in the crucial state.

Since Bihar will be a stand-alone election, EC plans to deploy adequate number of personnel from central para-military forces for the assembly polls without much difficulty.