Full EC bench to hold press conference at 1 PM in West Bengal today

The full bench of the Election Commission of India has arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday (January 20) evening to take stock of the poll preparations. The Election Commission will hold a press conference on Friday (January 22) at 1 pm during which important announcements are likely to be made.
 

During the day, the full bench of the Election Commission will hold meetings with state’s   Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Home Secretary HK Dwivedi, DGP Virendra and other senior officials.
 

Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain arrived in the state on Wednesday afternoon to inspect the preparations for the second phase of the polls. 

A senior official of the poll panel said, “The poll panel has already asked for regular reports of law and order situation in the state, including the status of non-bailable arrest warrants and seizure of illegal arms and ammunitions, from the administration. 

“A stern warning has also been sent out to officials that the EC won’t tolerate any dereliction of duty,” he added.
 

The senior official also said that the commission is thinking of increasing polling booths from 77,247 to 1,01,733. There are indications that the Commission is thinking to deploy approximately 25 per cent more security personnel compared to what was used in the last Lok Sabha elections.

According to commission sources, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain has already submitted a report to the full bench on the preparations for the Bengal polls.