EC asks Tripura officials to be ready for February polls

Agartala, Nov 17 (IANS) An Election Commission (EC) team that visited Tripura on Thursday and Friday asked the state officials to make all preparations in place for the next assembly polls, due in February next year.

"A four-member EC team arrived here on Thursday and held a series of meetings for two days. The EC team asked the state officials to make ready all preparations for the coming assembly polls," a Tripura Election Department official said.

He said: "The EC team also held separate meetings with leaders of all national, regional and recognised political parties, District magistrates and superintendents of police, besides top officials including Chief Secretary Sanjeev Ranjan and Director General of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla."

The official said the ruling CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist), Congress and other political parties had proposed that the next assembly polls be conducted by second week of February, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought an intensive electoral roll revision for free and fair elections.

The four-member EC team led by Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain during the two-day visit to Tripura also gathered inputs about the law and order situation in the state.

The EC team left here for New Delhi on Friday night.

The Election Commission on Monday held a meeting in New Delhi with Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland to take stock of preparations for the February 2018 assembly elections in these states.

The five-year terms of assemblies in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura will expire on March 6, 13, and 14, respectively.

The Left Front rules in Tripura, Congress holds power in Meghalaya, while the Naga People's Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland rules in Nagaland. The Democratic Alliance is supported by the BJP.