Gujarat Assembly Election: A team of officers from the Election Commission visited Ahmedabad to take stock of the preparedness for the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat.
The tenure of the Gujarat Assembly will end on February 23, 2023 and the poll authority can hold elections anytime within six months of the expiry of the five-year term of any House.
A nine-member team from the Election Commission was on a three-day visit to Ahmedabad beginning Friday.
“The ECI team along with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Gujarat P Bharathi held a review meeting on election preparedness with District Election Officers, District Superintendents of Police and Commissioner of Police on September 17 and 18,” a statement issued by the Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer said.
It said all key thematic issues covering electoral roll and special summary revision (SSR), EVM/VVPAT, polling stations, assured minimum facilities at polling stations, manpower, transportation, law and order, security, SVEEP, training and capacity building were discussed in detail.
The officials also took feedback from the districts in respect of all the important issues to ensure smooth conduct of forthcoming elections.
The Election Commission officials also held detailed discussions with nodal officers and representatives from various enforcement agencies, including Income Tax, Excise, CBIC, Reserve Bank of India, Department of Revenue Intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau, Railway Protection Force, Department of Post, Bureau of Civil Aviation & Security, Airport Authority of India, and Enforcement Directorate.
A meeting was also held with secretaries from various state government departments, including Home, School Education, Power, Telecommunications, Roads & Transport, Health & Family Welfare, Excise and Revenue.
Later, a meeting was also held with the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police to discuss various issues related to forthcoming elections and feedback received from CEO, State Police Nodal Officer, DEOs, SPs and enforcement agencies for smooth conduct of forthcoming elections in the state.
The EC team comprised of Senior Deputy Election Commissioners Dharmendra Sharma and Nitesh Vyas, Deputy Election Commissioner Hridesh Kumar, Senior Principal Secretary N N Butolia, Directors Yashvendra Singh and Deepali Masirkar, Principal Secretary S B Joshi, Deputy Secretary Shubhra Saxena and Joint Director Anuj Chandak.
BJP has been in power in the state since 1998 and the main opposition Congress came close to defeating it in the previous assembly elections in 2017.
However, over the past five years, several Congress leaders have quit the party to join the BJP and the AAP appears to have stolen the march in campaigning for the upcoming elections, seeking to expand its presence in the country.
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