CEC meets officials to check Puducherry poll preparedness

ON a three-day see to poll-bound Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar held meetings with senior officials of the unification soil as portion of the EC’s critique of the arrangements for the upcoming elections.The CEC is accompanied by election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi and other commission officials. In he first leg of their visit the senior election officials reached Puducherry on Wednesday and held several meetings with UT officials.“All national and state political parties and all heads of the election machinery have promised the Election Commission that the assembly elections to be held in Puducherry will be a model election for the entire country in every respect,” CEC Kumar said after the meeting in Puducherry, ANI reported.With political parties flagging money power, freebies and social media misuse as serious threats to electoral integrity, the EC sent out a strong message of stricter enforcement during a high-level meeting recognised national and state parties in Puducherry.“The Commission has zero tolerance towards money power, inducements or any attempt to vitiate the electoral process. Strict monitoring, flying squads, expenditure observers and digital surveillance mechanisms will be further strengthened,” a senior EC official who attended the meeting said on condition of anonymity.Representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Indian National Congress, along with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, All India NR Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam attended the meeting with top EC officials in Puducherry.According to the official, most parties appreciated the peaceful and smooth conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls even as they pressed for tougher action against the alleged distribution of cash and inducements to voters.The current visit is part of a broader review exercise being undertaken in all poll-bound states. Earlier this week, EC officials visited Kerala and Assam. These states, along with Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and West Bengal are scheduled to go to the polls together in the latest round of assembly elections.Among the four states, West Bengal is the only state where a final revised electoral roll is yet to be published. The deadline for publication of final electoral roll in Bengal is February 28. The Commission is expected to visit West Bengal in the first week of March following the publication of the final roll.The review meetings mark one of the final steps in the Election Commission’s preparedness before announcing the poll schedule. It is expected that the EC may announce the election schedule in early to mid-March.