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EC to visit UP, Bihar to review poll arrangements

March 03, 2009 20:58 IST

Gearing up the machinery ahead of the general elections, the full Election Commission will visit Uttar Pradesh and Bihar this week to review the poll readiness in these two key states in the Hindi heartland which together accounts for 120 seats.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami and the two election commissioners Navin Chawla and S Y Quraishi will be leaving for Lucknow on Wednesday evening for getting first hand account of the preparations in UP.

They will review the arrangements with senior civil and police officials in Patna on Friday.

Uttar Pradesh, which has the maximum of 80 seats, will have five-phased polls while Bihar will go to the elections in four stages. The EC has announced a five phased polling on April 16, 23, 30, May 7 and 13 to elect the 543-member House.

In UP, the EC, apart from meeting senior state government officials, is also likely to hold a separate meeting with the chief secretary and director general of police, official sources said.

They are expected to meet the chief electoral officer on Wednesday, while on Thursday the EC team will meet the district magistrates and senior district police officials.

In the wake of state-wide review, all the DMs, commissioners, superintendents of police and deputy inspector generals of police have been summoned to Lucknow.