Guwahati/New Delhi, Mar 20 (IANS): The full bench of the Election Commission (EC) led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora will visit West Bengal and Assam next week to review the preparedness for the ensuing Assembly elections in both the states, officials said on Friday.
Election officials said that the CEC accompanied by the two Election Commissioners -- Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar would arrive in Assam on March 22 and after holding a series of meetings in the poll-bound state, would go West Bengal the next day.
"The full Election Commission accompanied by senior officials would study the preparations of the Assembly elections in Assam. The Commission after arriving in Guwahati on Monday and then leave for Tezpur where the Commission in a meeting will review the latest preparation and present scenario with the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendent of Police of the districts going to poll in the first phase on March 27," a senior election official told IANS.
The EC's three special general, police and expenditure observers, Assam Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Khade, State Police Nodal Officer Deepak Kedia, Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) Coordinator, various Divisional Commissioners would participate in the meeting.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police of different regions and other official would also attend the meeting. The Commission, after returning to Guwahati from Tezpur, would hold another review meeting with Assam Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Khade.
The Commission will be accompanied by its officers -- Secretary General Umesh Sinha, Director General Dharmendra Sharma, Additional Director General of Press Information Bureau Sheyphali B. Sharan.
The full bench of the EC headed by Arora had earlier visited Assam for three days on January 18-20 and held meetings with political parties, officials and others.
According to a senior election official, the full EC would go to Kolkata on Tuesday and during their stay would hold several meetings with the political parties and senior officials including Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Home Secretary H. K. Dwivedi and Director General of Police (DGP) Virendra.
The full EC had earlier on January 20-22 had visited West Bengal and held several meetings with the political parties and top officials.Elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly will be held in three phases.
Phase one will see polling for 47 constituencies on March 27 while in the second phase, polling would be held for 39 seats on April 1.
The remaining 40 constituencies will go to the polls on April 6. Balloting to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in a staggering eight phases starting from March 27 to April 29.
The results will be declared on May 2 in the five states --Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry besides Assan and West Bengal.