Kolkata, April 12 (IANS) A special team of the Election Commission of India (ECI) will arrive in West Bengal this week for a final review of preparedness for the two-phase voting on April 23 and April 29.

Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said that in all probability, the special ECI review team, headed by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Bharati, will arrive in Kolkata on Monday morning to review preparedness for the 294 Assembly constituencies in the state.

It is learnt that after arriving in Kolkata, the members of the visiting ECI team will be divided into two sections. “One team will be reviewing the preparedness in the South Bengal district, like East Burdwan, West Burdwan, East Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, and Kolkata. The other team will be reviewing the poll preparations for the North Bengal districts Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, and South Dinajpur, among others,” said a CEO’s office insider.

Both teams will also hold meetings with the officers of the general and police administrations of the respective districts.

Already, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, is making regular visits to the different districts in the state, reviewing poll preparations in the districts concerned.

“This is the first time that the CEO himself is making district visits. All these initiatives are to achieve the Commission’s Mission to ensure absolutely free & fair and violence-free polls,” said the source in the CEO’s office. He also said this is the first time in the past few elections that special ECI teams held tours to West Bengal.

In the first phase on April 23, there will be elections for 152 Assembly constituencies covering the entire North Bengal and certain districts in South Bengal. In the second phase on April 29, the polls will be for the remaining districts in Kolkata, mainly the state capital, Kolkata, and its adjacent districts like North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, and Howrah, among others.

The results will be declared on May 4.

–IANS

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