From Our Correspondent
Agartala: The full-fledged team of Election Commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) VS Sampath will visit the state in the first week of January.
The team will visit the Left-ruled state either on January 4 or 5. During the visit, the Commission will hold meeting with state election machineries to know the election preparedness.
Besides, the CEC will also have separate meetings with representatives of different political parties to know their views on the election schedule.
After observing the election preparedness, Sampath will meet the media, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashutosh Jindal at Civil Secretariat here on Thursday.
“An eight-member team of Election Commission also arrived here to verify the complaints in respect to the draft photo electoral rolls,” Jindal said.
“Out of eight members, four will be observers while rest will assist the observers during verification process”, he added.
While Anuj Joypuriya will verify the complaints lodged under Gomati and South district, NN Butulia will check complaint filed under different Assembly constituencies under West and Sipahijala. Sumit Mukherjee will oversee the revision of electoral rolls of Dhalai and Khowai districts and SB Joshi will verify complaints lodged against electoral rolls for North and Unakoti districts.
When asked whether the EC is sending eight-member team to the state following fresh 8000 complaints lodged by Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Sudip Roy Barman, the CEO replied, “ It may be”.
The PCC president had met the Election Commission in Delhi and submitted a list of 8000 fresh complaints in respect to the draft photo electoral rolls. Later, MLA Subal Bhowmik who went to meet the EC with the PCC president, said the Commission had assured of looking into the complaint.
The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on January 12, 2013 paving the way for holding Assembly elections on the basis of revised electoral rolls.
The ruling CPI-M in Tripura condemned the Congress move, and alleged that the opposition party was delaying the process of revising electoral rolls and trying to promulgate president’s rule in the state.
The state assemblies in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland have 60 seats each, and the terms of the assemblies of these states expire March 10, March 16 and March 26, respectively. (With inputs from PTI)