Simultaneous polls in 4 states: CEC

ludhiana: assembly elections in punjab, uttar pradesh, uttaranchal and manipur would be held simultaneously, chief election commissioner j m lyngdoh said on friday. earlier, the election commission used to seek the dates convenient for the concerned state government for holding the polls, but this time the ec would announce the dates on its own, he told reporters here.declining to spell out any specific date for the polls in the four states, lyngdoh said they "are round the corner." the cec, who is on a two-day visit to punjab to take stock of the poll preparations in the state, said the voters list for all the constituencies was under revision and the final list would be published on january seven next. "over 80 per cent of the voters have been issued identity cards and it is mandatory for them to show these cards while voting," he said. replying to a question, lyngdoh said the process of registering of votes would be brought online soon and the entire voters list would be made available on the internet in due course of time. "the urban voters will be brought on the website first followed by rural voters in the entire country." the computer-based system would put a stop to enrolment of bogus voters. the system would cover all the 650 million voters in the country, he said. lyngdoh, during a meeting with deputy commissioners to discuss the pre-poll situation in the state at amritsar on thursday, had expressed serious concern over the alleged deletion of names from the voters list. he directed the officials to look into the complaints received from muktsar and naushera panuan areas.