NEW DELHI, Jan 22:
In the run up to Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission has convened a meeting of all recognised political parties on February 4 for the conduct of free and fair elections.
The all-party meeting, which is part of EC’s poll preparations, comes a day ahead of the Parliament Session.
There are a total of six recognised national parties and 47 state parties.
During the meeting, top EC officials will hold discussions and consultations with all recognised national and state political parties and the Commission will list its “Do’s and Don’ts” to them. The EC will also seek suggestions and cooperation from them for the smooth conduct of polls.
The Lok Sabha polls will be held between mid-April and early May in five or six phases and will involve about 800 million voters, top EC sources said.
Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim will also have assembly polls along with the Lok Sabha elections.
“The announcement of the poll schedule would be made in the last days of February or at best the first two-three days of March,” a source told.
During the 2009 polls, there were 714 million voters against 671 million voters in 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
Ahead of the poll announcement, the Lok Sabha will meet from February 5 to 21 to pass the vote-on-account.
The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31.
A total of 1.1 crore poll personnel, half of them from central security forces will be deployed for the smooth conduct of polls.
Chief Electoral Officers of various states have already started holding meetings with various state parties ahead of the polls.
They will also be holding separate meetings with DGPs of states for availability of state police forces for the exercise.
The EC is also working on finalising polling stations for elections. At least 8 lakh polling stations are to be set up for polling across the country.
Preparations for deployment of around 12 lakh electronic voting machines are also being made and the Commission is likely to get another 2.5 lakh new EVMs by mid-February which it had ordered with various public-sector companies.
The last Lok Sabha polls were held in five phases in April-May. (AGENCIES)
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