A couple of days after deputy election commissioner Sudip Jain set his foot in West Bengal, it has come to be known that the dates of upcoming State Assembly Elections here can be declared in February.

According to a report carried by Hindustan Times Bangla, Jain has hinted that in his meeting with state election commission authorities, district magistrates and security officials.

Jain had arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday. In his meeting with the state authorities the next day, he reportedly asked them to begin preparation for the polls keeping in mind dates of April-May.

It has also appeared that elections in four other states – Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry – will be conducted simultaneously.

Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, along with Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar, will visit Assam and West Bengal early next week to take stock of preparations for Assembly polls slated for later this year.

Like Jain in West Bengal, another EC official is in Assam to take stock of the situation there.

“The two would brief the Commission on Friday and the Commission would visit Assam and West Bengal in that order early next week,” PTI quited a functionary as saying.

It is usual for the Commission to visit poll-bound states before announcing the schedule of Assembly elections. But it had visited Bihar after announcing the dates for the last elections.

The terms of the legislative assemblies of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry are coming to an end on different dates in May and June this year. The Assembly elections are likely to take place sometime in April-May.

The Election Commission had on Tuesday discussed with Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla the availability and requirement of central security forces for the upcoming Assembly elections.

The meeting held at the EC headquarters here was “primarily to discuss requirement vis-Ã -vis availability of central armed police forces (CAPFs), and related matters, for the upcoming Assembly Elections to the States of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and the Union Territory of Puducherry,” the poll panel had said.

With inputs from PTI