ECI team to visit Mumbai to review Maharashtra Assembly election preparations

Mumbai, Sep 21 (IANS) A 14-member Election Commission of India (ECI) team will visit Mumbai from September 26 and 28 to review preparations for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, and also hold discussions with various political parties.  

The ECI team will meet the political parties on September 27. 

On the same day, it will hold discussions with the state Chief Electoral Officer, enforcement agencies, the state chief secretary, director general of police and other administrative secretaries and senior police officers over the deployment of the necessary manpower and law and order situation.

On September 28, the Election Commission team will hold an interactive meeting with the district collectors and superintendents of police to take stock of the ground level preparations.

The ECI team's visit assumes importance as Chief Minister Eknath Shinde last Sunday said that the Assembly election may take place in the second week of November as the term of the current assembly is till November 26.

The visit comes after Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam on September 12 and 13 met the deputy district election officers and district collectors and chief district election officers and reviewed the preparations for the elections in 288 Assembly constituencies.

The CEO reviewed the status of electronic voting machines, the updated voters' list, status of polling material and district level poll management, especially the availability of the required number of staff and security arrangements for free and fair elections.

Further, the CEO also took stock of the situation of the district level preparedness for conducting the counting smoothly.

He also reviewed the plan to start polling stations in high rise buildings and cooperative societies with over 200 families.

Maharashtra added 2.4 million new voters during the special drive conducted between August 6 and 20.

In view of this, the number of total voters in the state rose to 95.4 million, up from 92.94 million at the end of the Lok Sabha election.

Over 2.08 million applications for voter addition and 370,000 applications for name deletion due to death or duplication were received by the ECI during the special drive.

--IANS

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