CEC, ECs to visit Bihar, review poll preparedness on Oct 4-5
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and S S Sandhu will visit Patna for two days beginning Saturday to review poll preparedness in Bihar, officials said.
The term of the 243-member Bihar Assembly ends on November 22 and polls in the state are likely to be held in multiple phases beginning at the end of this month and in November.
It is common practice for the poll authority to visit states before announcing the election schedule.
The CEC and election commissioners will be in the state on October 4 and 5, the officials said on Friday.
The EC meets representatives of political parties and top police, administrative and state poll officials while reviewing election readiness.
A briefing of general, police and expenditure observers appointed by the Election Commission (EC) for the Bihar polls is underway here.
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list in Bihar has concluded and the final electoral roll, published on September 30, has nearly 7.42 crore electors.
The SIR, conducted after a gap of over two decades, has come under sharp criticism from opposition parties who have claimed that it will disenfranchise crores of genuine citizens.
The EC has asserted that it will not allow any eligible citizen to be left out of the voters' list and at the same time, no ineligible person will be on the list.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Kolkata Port: Decline in number of voters during SIR brings in uncertainty in TMC bastion
Kolkata (PTI): A sharp decline in the number of voters following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has injected an element of uncertainty into the Kolkata Port Assembly constituency, considered a safe seat for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The electorate in the south Kolkata constituency has dropped from 2.36 lakh in the 2021 Assembly polls to around 1.75 lakh, a fall of nearly 26 per cent, prompting political parties to closely assess its potential impact on the April 29 polling.
The TMC re-nominated senior minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, who has held the seat for two consecutive terms, while the BJP fielded Rakesh Singh. The Congress nominated Aquib Gulzar, and the CPI(M) put up Faiyaz Ahmad Khan, making it a four-cornered contest.
Kolkata Port, part of the Kolkata Dakshin parliamentary constituency, comprises dock areas, old business districts and densely populated neighbourhoods. Muslim voters form a significant segment of the electorate, alongside traders, transport workers and working-class Hindu families.
The reduction in voter numbers has prompted party workers across formations to scrutinise the revised rolls booth-wise to identify deletions and assess whether specific localities have been affected.
Singh’s candidature has added a twist to the contest. He had earlier contested against Hakim as a Congress candidate but is now in the fray on a BJP ticket.
Hakim won the seat in 2016 by 26,548 votes, defeating Singh, and increased his margin significantly to 68,554 votes in 2021, polling over one lakh votes.
While the TMC has expressed confidence in retaining the seat, opposition parties have raised concerns over the voter list revision, alleging that names of genuine voters have been removed.
“People here know who has stood by them. Elections are decided by trust,” Hakim told PTI during a campaign event.
Singh claimed several residents had complained about missing names in the rolls, stressing the need for transparency. The CPI(M) nominee also said voters in several areas had raised similar concerns.
The constituency has remained a difficult terrain for the opposition in recent elections.
Civic issues such as sanitation, traffic congestion and declining business activity in traditional markets also feature in the campaign in the constituency, though the revised voter list has emerged as a key talking point.
Polling in the constituency will be held in the second phase on April 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.
