An Election Commission of India team led by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora held marathon meeting with officials of 75 districts and 80 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh and took stock of poll preparedness, in Lucknow on Thursday.
The Election Commission team, comprising the CEC and two other Election Commissioners, Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, reached Lucknow on Wednesday afternoon and immediately met delegations of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Left parties who put forward their complaints and submitted memorandums.
On Thursday, the Election Commission team’s meeting with officials commenced in the morning and continued till late evening. The officials of all districts and Lok Sabha constituencies apprised the Election Commission of the arrangements to be made for the parliamentary polls.
The Election Commission team made it clear that booth management should be perfect and gave the officials the mantra for increasing polling percentage.
The Chief Election Commissioner also asked officials to make special arrangements for the specially-abled, besides arrangement of drinking water, power supply and sitting areas at all the booths.
The Election Commission team will meet the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Principal Secretary (Home) and Principal Secretary (Excise) on Friday.
The Election Commission team will also hold meeting with officials of Income Tax, Narcotics department, transport, banks, railways and civil aviation to make them aware of their roles in the elections.
Sources said that before winding up their visit, the Chief Election Commissioner will also address a press conference on Friday afternoon to brief the media about the outcome of their visit.
Earlier on Wednesday, the BJP delegation urged the Election Commission team to increase the voting hours.
“The BJP delegation urged the Chief Election Commissioner to increase voting duration by an hour, since VVPAT machines (linked to EVM units) consume more time in voting,” BJP state vice-president JPS Rathore said.
“The BJP also demanded that tracking-ID of postal ballots be generated within 24 hours of issuance of notification so that votes of jawans of army, para-military and officers posted in remote areas could be registered before the counting of votes,” Rathore said.
It was also demanded that postal ballots be converted into e-ballots for army and para-military personnel and officers posted in remote areas.
The BJP also demanded that the Election Commission give permission for programmes conducted by the party 15-20 days before filing of nominations, and expenses be clubbed with the expenses of the party.