Lok Sabha polls: EC officials led by Deputy Election Commissioner holds series of meetings in Guwahati

The ECI team met with Assam Chief Secretary Paban Kumar Borthakur, Chief Electoral Officer of Assam Anurag Goel, Inspector-General of Police (Law and Order) and State Police Nodal Officer PK Bhuyan, Inspector General of Police (TAP) and Inspector-General (Communication) and State Central Armed Police Forces Nodal Officer of Assam Akhilesh Kumar Singh, and Inspector General of Police (WR), Bongaigaon and Nodal Officer of Election Expenditure in Assam, Dilip Kumar Dey, representatives of various central enforcement agencies and seniormost secretaries of various government departments in a series of meetings held at Janata Bhawan in Dispur.

In line with the preparation for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, a team of the Election Commission of India arrived in Assam's Guwahati on Tuesday.

The agenda of the team included meetings with officials and political parties to review the security arrangements in the state.

Earlier, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told media that, the state government has requested the ECI to schedule the elections in Assam before the Bohag Bihu or Rongali Bihu celebration.

Meanwhile, taking note of the various trends and cases of plummeting levels of political campaign discourse in recently held elections, ECI has issued further advisory to all political parties to maintain decorum and utmost restraint in public campaigning and raise the level of election campaigning to "issue"-based debate.

The poll body has also put the 'Star Campaigners' and candidates on a 'notice' in case of violations that followed the previously known methodologies during elections to avoid breaching the Model Code of Conduct.

For the Lok Sabha polls and four state Legislative assemblies, all phases and geographical areas of the elections shall be the basis for determining "repeat" offences.

It may be recalled that Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar recently emphasised that political parties should foster ethical and respectful political discourse that inspires rather than divides and promotes ideas instead of personal attacks.

The Commission has urged all the political parties, their leaders, and the contesting candidates to remain within the confines of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and the legal framework.

It has been emphasised that any genre of surrogate or indirect violation of MCC and surrogate means to plumage level of the election campaign will be dealt with stern action by the Commission. (ANI)