Election Commission set to announce poll dates for West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry after Bengal visit

The Election Commission of India will visit Kerala and West Bengal on March 6-7 and March 9-10, respectively, to review preparedness for the upcoming Assembly polls. Sources said the poll schedule can be announced any time after the West Bengal visit.

The Commission has already visited poll-bound Tamil Nadu, Assam, and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

During the visit, the full Commission, led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, will hold meetings with registered political parties in the States as well as with the heads/nodal officers of enforcement agencies, Inspectors General, Deputy Inspectors General, District Electoral Officers, and Superintendents of Police among others on election planning, EVM management, logistics, training of election staff, seizures, law and order, voter awareness and outreach activities.

The terms of the Assemblies in all these States end between May and June. The West Bengal Assembly’s term gets over on May 7, Tamil Nadu’s on May 10, Assam’s on May 20, Kerala’s on May 23, and Puducherry’s on June 15.

Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was conducted under Phase 2 in all the poll-bound States barring Assam where a Special Revision was done due to legal complications related to the unpublished National Register of Citizens.

Following the SIR, the number of voters has gone down in Tamil Nadu (11.55%), Kerala (3.22%), West Bengal (8%) and Puducherry (7.57%).

While final voter lists have been published in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, and Assam, in West Bengal the list released on February 28 has more than 60 lakh voters marked as under “adjudication” whose cases are being decided by court-appointed judicial officers. These voters will be added to the final list when their names are cleared; they can vote in the Assembly polls after that.

Last month, the Calcutta High Court informed the Supreme Court that it was not possible for its limited number of judicial officers to promptly adjudicate more than 60 lakh voter claims, arising out of “logical discrepancy” or for remaining “unmapped”, during the SIR in West Bengal following which the top court allowed deploying judges from neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand.