The deputy election commissioner Nitish Kumar Byas, a senior IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, in-charge of West Bengal may make a special visit to the state by this month before the full-bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) comes probably during the first week of March.
As the countdown for the general elections scheduled in April-May begins, Mr Byas will hold meetings with district magistrates (DMs) and additional district magistrates (ADMs) to discuss issues related to Lok Sabha (LS) polls in the state.
The DMs and ADMs have already undergone orientation programmes organized by the ECI in Delhi recently.
They have been asked to take strong steps to prevent incidents of riggings, booth jamming, false voting and violence during polls in the state during the orientation programme.
Mr Byas will look after these issues during his visit to the state and also hold meetings with Ariz Aftab, chief electoral officer (CEO) in the state and other senior officials in the CEO office, it’s learnt.
On the other hand, the full-bench of the commission is coming to the state by the first week of March.
It’s also learnt that the bench will land in Kolkata on 1 March and hold a meeting with Mr Aftab and his senior colleagues in the afternoon same day.
On 2 March, the bench will also sit in on a meeting with political parties to listen to their suggestions and grievances. The bench headed by the chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar will also hold meetings with DMs and superintendent of police (SP) across districts in the city later in the day.
The bench will hold meetings with concerned departments of state government to discuss facilities to be made available for the elections. This will be followed by another meeting with top bureaucrats starting from chief secretary, home secretary and top cops like director general of police and additional director general of police (law and order).
The dates of parliamentary polls in the country may be announced by the ECI during the second week of March.