ECI 2 day visit to Maha for poll preparedness, seeks input from political parties

Top Election Commission of India officials Monday reviewed preparations for Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa, Sushil Chandra and state chief electoral officer Ashwani Kumar were present at a meeting held here in this connection, a senior official said.

The ECI team, on a two-day visit to Maharashtra, met senior state administration and election officials and also sought inputs from registered political parties. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik, who participated in the deliberations, said his party demanded that if voting is held through EVMs, then 20 per cent VVPAT slips should be counted and if there was a mismatch, then 100 per cent slips should be counted.

The party also demanded a hike in the limit of election expenditure. Malik said 30 to 40 per cent of voter rolls are without photographs of voters. He also demanded stoppage of the election campaign on social media 48 hours before polling but did not elaborate on how that will be achieved. The Congress delegation claimed there are 44 lakh bogus voters in the state electoral rolls. The party demanded a revision of the electoral rolls to remove bogus and duplicate voters.

"At Monday's review meeting, officials discussed preparation of the voter's list, distribution of voter IDs, expenditure schedule and requirement as well as security measures such as the requirement of CRPF columns," the official said. "The poll officials expressed their satisfaction with overall preparations in Maharashtra," the official said. The ECI team is expected to meet divisional commissioners, district collectors and SPs Tuesday and also address media.