EC full bench in Kol today to take stock of state poll prep

Kolkata: The full bench of the Election Commission, led by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, will arrive in Kolkata on Sunday night for a three-day visit to take stock of Bengal's poll preparedness.This will be the full EC bench's first Bengal visit this poll season, and will come amid raging controversies surrounding the commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.
CEC Kumar will be accompanied by election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi during the visit. The EC bench will hold a meeting with recognised national and state parties on March 9, followed by a series of review meets on poll preparedness at a New Town hotel.It will also hold meetings on Monday with senior police officers, including IGs, DIGs and police commissioners as well as with district election officers (DEOs) and superintendents of police.On March 10, the EC bench will review election arrangements with the Bengal chief electoral officer and nodal officers of CAPF. A separate meeting will be convened with the Bengal chief secretary, DGP and other state officials.Sources said all DEOs have been asked to make a detailed presentation before the full bench on the on-ground situation and preparations, including identification of vulnerable and sensitive police stations. The EC bench's visit will also include an interaction with booth-level officers (BLOs) The bench will depart for Delhi on Tuesday afternoon.A day ahead of the visit, Trinamool on Saturday remained locked in a verbal duel with the Bengal CEO on X.Trinamool alleged that on Jan 20 — the last day to file Form-7s seeking deletion of voters — the number of Form-7s was mentioned as 42,251. However, the final Feb 28 notification showed the number to be 5,46,053 — a jump of over five lakh."Similarly, Form-6/6A submissions totaled 6,33,762 (on Jan 20), yet only 1,82,036 additions were made under Form 6 (in the final voter roll), resulting in 4,51,762 fewer inclusions than expected," the party said.The Bengal CEO's X handle called TMC's claims "misleading". It claimed that the final Form-7 figures received by EC on Feb 28 stood at 5,46,053. Another 7,733 forms were received online and offline.The CEO said the figures include autogenerated Form-7s triggered by rejections in SIR enumeration forms and that the voter addition figures reflect only those added from the total applications received.TMC challenged this claim and said: "How does one reconcile this massive gap? If these were ‘received by mail' why didn't this reflect on your Jan 20 bulletin, the very last date for claims and objections? That was the cutoff, no further legitimate additions or deletions should have slipped in without transparency."Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Women's day wishes, messages and quotes !