Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 6 (IANS) With the clock ticking towards the end of the current Kerala Legislative Assembly’s term, a high-level team from the Election Commission of India (ECI) is likely to visit the state early next month to assess poll preparedness ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.

A new 140-member Assembly must be in place by the third week of May this year, making April the most likely window for polling.

The team will be led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, a former top Kerala bureaucrat who is widely familiar with the state’s administrative and political landscape.

Kumar had earlier this week chaired a meeting of senior Election Commission officials in New Delhi to review the ground situation in states scheduled to go to the polls this year, including Kerala.

Sources familiar with the deliberations said the Election Commission is actively considering holding the Kerala Assembly elections in April, and indications point towards a single-phase poll across all 140 constituencies spread over the state’s 14 districts.

Kerala has traditionally favoured single-phase polling owing to its compact geography, high voter literacy, and relatively robust election machinery.

The visit of the ECI team is expected to focus on key issues such as law and order, deployment of central forces, election expenditure monitoring, the status of electoral rolls, and preparedness to ensure free and fair polling.

The ECI is also likely to review the use of technology and measures to curb misinformation during the campaign.

Politically, the election is set to witness a triangular contest, as in recent years, between the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

At present, the LDF enjoys a comfortable majority in the Assembly with 97 seats, while the UDF holds 42 seats.

The NDA, despite an expanding vote base, failed to retain the single seat that it won in the 2016 polls.

The political landscape saw a minor but significant change on Monday, when one Assembly seat fell vacant following the disqualification of ruling front legislator Antony Raju.

The disqualification came after a trial court sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment in a criminal case, triggering immediate political ripples ahead of the election season.

With the Election Commission stepping up its engagement, the formal election process in Kerala is now clearly entering its final phase.

–IANS

sg/dpb