Election Commission to review Bihar poll preparations today

Patna, Oct 12 (ANI): The full Election Commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner S. Y. Quraishi will hold discussions with representative of different political parties today to review preparations for the Bihar Assembly polls.

During the two-day visit, Quraishi along with the two other commissioners-V.S. Sampath and H.S. Brahma-will take stock of arrangements being made for the smooth conduct of the six-phase poll.

They will visit Bhagalpur and Muzzafarpur and will review the arrangements in the districts, which is going to polls in the first four phases.

The Commission has also sent its Deputy Election Commissioner J P Prakash and Director General of Election Monitoring Division P K Das to the state.

The six-phase poll for 243 seats begins from October 21 and concludes on November 20

The first phase of elections will take place on October 21 for 47 state assembly seats, the second phase on October 24, the third phase on October 28 for 48 seats, the fourth on November1 for 42 seats, the fifth phase on November 9 for 25 seats and the sixth and last phase on November 20 for 26 seats.

Counting of votes will take place on November 24.

Bihar has over 5.5 crore voters, who will exercise their franchise through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). (ANI)