Kolkata: Amid the publication of the final voters’ list in West Bengal minus those whose names have been referred for judicial adjudication as per the direction of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India (ECI) will be conducting crucial meetings Monday and Tuesday to review the post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) scenario in the state as part of its preparations for the forthcoming Assembly election.
The meetings will be conducted in two phases, starting from 11 a.m. on Monday, where its top officials will hold a virtual meeting with the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manoj Kumar Agarwal, Additional CEOs, Joint CEOs, Deputy CEOs, District Magistrates, who are also the district electoral officers, and the district police superintendents.
Tuesday, there will be the second phase of the meetings, which will be attended virtually by the ECI’s top brass in New Delhi, the CEO, the state nodal police officer (SNPO), and coordinating officers of the different central security and investigating agencies for the polls in the state.
“In the meeting on Monday, the ECI’s top officials are likely to review the current deployment of 240 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), who had already been deployed in the state from Sunday.
The ECI officials are likely to seek information on how these 240 companies of CAPF deployed are being utilised for area domination and getting acclimatised with the geographies of the areas they are deployed,” said an insider from the CEO’s office.
At the same time, he added, the issue of deploying 240 additional companies in the second phase March 10 might also be discussed in the meeting Monday. “At the same time, the Commission is also expected to take a review on the progress of the judicial adjudication of the 60 lakh odd voters’ documents by the ECI-appointed judicial officers,” the CEO’s office insider said.
In the meeting Tuesday, the main agenda will be to discuss ways for reaching better coordination between the state and Central agencies for the most effective utilisation of CAPF, better coordination between different state and Central intelligence-cum-enforcement agencies to prevent the use of money, liquor, and drugs, and ensuring safety in areas close to both the international and inter-state borders.
However, uncertainties remain regarding the announcement of the polling dates and the enforcement of the model code of conduct. Initially, it was decided that the polling dates would be announced in the first week of March, immediately after the Holi festival March 4.
However, due to the continuing judicial adjudication of the voters’ documents, it now seems that the polling date will be announced in the second week of March.
