CEC and EC likely to visit Patna on Aug 7-8

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti are likely to be in Patna on August 7 and 8 to take stock of preparations for assembly elections in Bihar which it is keen to hold before festival season starts in late October.
The decision of the Commission to visit the poll-bound state comes as the poll body published the final electoral rolls today.
"The Commission will be in the state for two days. The dates are most likely to be August 7 and 8 though the window of the visit is between August 6 and 8," said a source in the Commission.

The Commissioners will meet with top administration and police officials besides representatives of political parties before taking a call on fixing the poll schedule.
The term of the 243-member Bihar assembly ends on November 29 and the new House should be in place before that.
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 elections in the crucial state.

Since Bihar will be a stand-alone election, EC hopes to get the required number of personnel from central forces for the assembly polls without much of an ado.

The festival of chhatt, which is an important event in Bihar, falls six days after Diwali that will be celebrated on November 11.
Soon after the publication of electoral rolls, the state electoral machinery will commence the process of updating of electoral rolls to ensure that those left out are 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.
Since as per the 2001 census, there are 18 assembly constituencies where Urdu-speaking population is more than 20 per cent of their total population, the electoral rolls "shall be prepared in Urdu language also by transliteration," the EC said recently.