EC reviews arrangements for Assembly elections

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 31. The Election Commission held a meeting on Thursday with officials of the Union Home Ministry to review the arrangements for holding elections to four Assemblies and by- elections in eleven States.

Elections to the Assemblies of Bihar, Orissa, Haryana and Manipur are likely in the month of February and by-elections are due in two Lok Sabha and 31 Assembly seats in eleven States.

The two Lok Sabha constituencies where by-elections are due are the Bellary seat in Karnataka vacated by the Congress president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, and the Kannauj seat in Uttar Pradesh vacated by the Samajwadi Party president, Mr. Mulayum Singh Yadav.

The full Commission consisting of the Chief Election Commissioner, Dr. M.S. Gill and Election Commissioner, Mr. J.M. Lyngdoah, also discussed the report of the Deputy Election Commissioner, Mr. Sayan Chatterjee, who was deputed to Orissa and Bihar for an assessment of the preparations for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

The Chief Election Commissioner said the Commission would hold another meeting with the officials of the Home Ministry to discuss security requirements before deciding on the dates for the Assembly elections in the four States and the by-elections.

Dr. Gill said the Commission has asked the Home Ministry to send some of the forces in advance of three to four weeks to Bihar in order to `sanitise' the areas before the elections.

While the term of Bihar Assembly will expire on April 9, the term of Assemblies of Orissa and Manipur will end in the last week of March.

The Haryana Assembly has been prematurely dissolved on the recommendation of the Om Prakash Chautala Government.

The Commission will be guided by several factors in deciding the schedule for the elections to four Assemblies.

The most significant factor is that the new Assemblies will have to be constituted before the end of March to enable the States to obtain either a vote-on-account or adopt budget for 2000-2001.

However, the Commission can not be oblivious to the fact that March is examination season.

Neither school buildings, most of which are converted into polling booths, nor school teachers who are drafted for poll duties will be available.

Another factor which will have to be kept in mind by the Commission is the budget session of Parliament which would begin in the third week of February.

National leaders of political parties would prefer completion of the election in major States like Bihar and Orissa before the budget session of Parliament as they will not have the benefit of intense campaign if the elections were to be held during the budget session.

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