Full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) headed by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar will be in city on Sunday on a three-day visit to review law and order situations in the state, probably a week before dates of the Lok Sabha (LS) polls in the country are announced by the ECI.
The bench will hold series of meetings separately with state chief electoral officer (CEO) Ariz Aftab, senior administrative officers like chief secretary (CS) B P Gopalika, home secretary (HS) Nandini Chakraborty, director general of police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar, commissioner of police (CP), Kolkata, district magistrates (DMs), superintendents of police (SP) and representatives of political parties.
The bench members may stay in a five-star hotel in central Kolkata, it’s learnt. The meetings will be held in different phases from Sunday evening in the hotel.
They will hold a meeting with Mr Aftab and other senior officers of the state CEO office, state nodal officer of police Ananda Kumar on Sunday evening.
On Monday, they will meet political parties recognized in both national and state levels respectively, at different times to know issues related to elections. The bench will also hear complaints if any political party wants to raise it in the meeting, sources in the CEO office said.
Second meeting will be held with DMs, SPs, CPs, inspectors general of police (IGPs) to take stock of preparatory measures in connection with the general elections.
On Tuesday, the commission will also sit with different enforcement agencies in the first session. The second session meeting will be held with the CS, HS and DGP. It will also hold a press conference after the meeting with top bureaucrats and cops on the same day.
The bench will hold meetings with concerned departments of state government to discuss about facilities to be made available for the elections.
On the other hand, the commission has already deployed 100 companies of central forces in the city and districts much before the election dates are announced.
The central forces have already started patrolling as confidence building measures among citizens.
Fifty more companies of central forces are also scheduled to be deployed on 7 March in the state.
The dates of parliamentary polls in the country may be announced by the ECI during the second week of March.