HYDERABAD: The
Election Commission of India (ECI) made it clear on Saturday the poll schedule for Telangana is yet to be finalized and reports that it would be held along with four states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram were speculative.
According to sources, the ECI is in the final stages of assessing all aspects of elections, including the completion of revision of electoral rolls and availability of Central forces. “Once the information is assessed, we will take a call on dates for elections to five states. It’s possible they could be held together or Telangana can go to polls earlier. The situation will be clear in a week’s time,” said an official.
With reference to Telangana, sources said the state is on course with reference to poll preparedness. At the same time, the apprehensions expressed by various political parties about deletion of names from the electoral rolls and other issues raised by them will be addressed, the source said.
According to them, the ECI has already begun revision of electoral rolls. The exercise will be completed and electoral rolls will be published on October 8. The last date for publishing claims and objections ended on November 25 and as many as 15 lakh claims and objections have been received by the election authorities in the state and would be disposed of before October 4. Almost all districts have received EVMs and VVPATs for conduct of polling.
The ECI’s clarification came in the context of a public interest litigation (PIL) being filed in the Supreme Court on fixing January 1, 2018, as the eligibility for new voter enrolments and claimed they lost the right to vote in the elections due to dates getting advanced to October 8.
(Representative image)
