Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Assembly polls before May 21

Special Correspondent

Emphasis on clean electoral rolls; draft rolls will be published shortly, says Tandon

GEARING UP: Chief Election Commissioner B.B.Tandon (centre), Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu Naresh Gupta (right) and Deputy Commissioner Anand Kumar (standing), at a press conference in Coimbatore on Monday. — Photo: K. Ananthan

Coimbatore: Elections to the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam and the Union Territory of Pondicherry will have to be conducted before May 21, Chief Election Commissioner B.B.Tandon told a press conference here on Monday.

However, he refused to say if it would be a one-day exercise.

Initiating the review of poll preparedness in the State, he said the term of the Tamil Nadu Assembly would expire on May 21. The term of the West Bengal House was scheduled to end on June 13 and that of the other Assemblies, in between.

As it was planned to conduct polls in the States as well as the Union Territory of Pondicherry, he had held a meeting with the Collectors of eight districts here on Monday. He would have a similar interaction with about a dozen Collectors in Madurai and with the rest in Chennai on Tuesday.

"My first emphasis is on clean electoral rolls," he said. With January 1, 2005 being the qualifying date, Tamil Nadu had a voter strength of 4.63 crore. A revision of rolls would be undertaken with January 1, 2006 as the qualifying date. Draft rolls would be published shortly and the final publication would be done by February-end.

Both the hard and soft copies of the draft rolls would be distributed to the political parties and "disseminated" to the public. "We would like to have updated and perfect rolls."

EPIC coverage

At present, Tamil Nadu had 45,745 polling stations and it would be ensured that no booth had more than 1,200 voters. If necessary, auxiliary booths would be set up. The Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) coverage in the State was just 54 per cent.

"By the end of this month, a campaign for increasing the EPIC coverage will be launched." Both permanent and mobile camps will be organised. "We would like to have maximum coverage in the next three months".

Asked whether the EPIC would be insisted upon during the election, Mr. Tandon said, "Identification is mandatory."

On State funding of elections, the CEC said the Government had referred the proposal to the Election Commission of India for "evolving a consensus". "We have convened a meeting with six national and 44 State political parties on February 15 in New Delhi."

Asked whether polling would be videographed as was done in Bihar, he said: "It is not only the polling, extensive videographing will be done even before the polling day (with regard to major events) and the counting will also be covered."

The EC was also exploring the possibility of using digital cameras in polling booths. "We have started making the assessment (in this connection)".

On the proposal to prevent criminals from contesting the elections, the CEC said it had been pending with the Centre. "The Government is trying to evolve some political consensus. I hope that something might emerge soon."

Meeting with Collector

Mr. Tandon, along with Deputy Chief Election Commissioner Aantha Kumar, held discussions with District Collector S. Murugaia in Palani on Monday about the election process, including a short revision of the electoral list being undertaken in the district.

State Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta and Joint Chief Electoral Officers P. Senthil Kumar, Prahalatha and Raman joined the discussion.

Later, they proceeded to Madurai to take part in a review meeting.

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