A representative image of voting.
Credit: iStock photo
Patna: Parties in Bihar on Saturday urged the Election Commission to conduct the assembly elections in the state immediately after the 'Chhath' Puja, to maximise the participation of voters and that it should be completed in as few phases as possible to ensure efficiency.
The proposal was put forth during a review meeting on poll preparedness with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
The two-day visit to Bihar began with the EC team holding meetings with the representatives of all major political parties.
"To maximise the participation of voters, the parties suggested that the elections be scheduled immediately after the Chhath festival," an EC statement said.
At the meeting, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said political parties are significant stakeholders of a strong democracy and called upon them to fully participate at every stage of the election process, by appointing their polling and counting agents.
“The political parties are the foundations of any democracy and, therefore, should actively participate in elections,” the EC reportedly told the leaders’ delegation.
According to sources, the EC sought feedback on voters’ list discrepancies, polling booth facilities and EVM security.
On Sunday, the EC team is likely to meet the nodal officers of the enforcement agencies — the Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, Customs & Excise, and other top Bihar officials, including the Chief Secretary, the DGP and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
Earlier, the EC also held a detailed review with Commissioners, IGs, DIGs, DEOs, SSPs and SPs.
Poll schedule
The poll schedule is likely to be announced soon. As per the law, the new assembly has to be constituted by November 22.
This was the first high-level review by the top EC team in the State after the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was carried out in Bihar in July to weed out bogus voters. The EC on September 30 eventually released a final electoral list where Bihar now has 7.42 crore voters, instead of the earlier 7.89 crore voters.
In the present Assembly, the NDA has 131 seats and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc has 111 seats.
(With inputs from Delhi)
PM lauds Nitish govt Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday blamed the “devastated state of education” during the RJD rule as a major reason for the large-scale migration from Bihar and lauded the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government for improving the situation and setting the state on a path to progress.