On Friday, a high-level team of Election Commission of India (ECI), headed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, visited Patna to review arrangements in the approach to the forthcoming Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi are also a part of the delegation. As the term of the present Assembly expiry on November 22, polls should be completed prior to this date and this visit will be one of the factors which will be a pointer that the poll schedule can be announced in the nearest future.
The ECI started off by conducting meetings with the representatives of the 12 state recognized political parties. This is aimed at getting feedback, solving issues and creating a fair playing field among all stakeholders. The ECI posted on X (previously Twitter) that the delegation had arrived and stated again that it was working on poll preparedness.
Before this tour, the Election Commission held a large-scale briefing in New Delhi of officials that will be Central Observers during the Bihar elections and select bypolls. In a press release, 425 officers were reported to have participated in the session in IIIDEM. They consisted of 287 IAS officers, 58 IPS officers and 80 officers of the services of IRS, IRAS and ICAS.
The session was hosted by CEC Gyanesh Kumar who referred to the participants as beacons of democracy. He emphasized the need to be abreast with election law, rules and guidelines. He also advocated on impartiality, independent field reporting and adherence to the Model Code of Conduct. The observers were advised to remain approachable to political parties, candidates and voters in order to address the complaints promptly.
They were also requested to go to the ground polling stations to monitor on the implementation of the new initiatives aimed at enhancing the convenience and accessibility of voters.
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