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Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Jan. 9 (EMN): Political parties in Nagaland may not have started campaigning aggressively for the upcoming Assembly election with some organisations calling for non participation over two reasons -- demand for a separate state and solution to Naga political issue – but the government of India has started preparing for the poll.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) officials, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel will visit election-bound north-eastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland this week to review poll preparedness, said PTI citing sources on Monday.
It is reported that the officials will visit Tripura on January 11, before leaving for Meghalaya on the 12th and then to Nagaland on the 14th to scrutinise the preparedness for the Assembly elections and ensure a free and fair polls.
The Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule of the election in all the three states after the review meetings and subsequent return to the national capital.
It may be mentioned that the Election Commission had announced 2018 Assembly election schedules for the three north-eastern states on January 18, before holding the election in Tripura on February 18, while Meghalaya and Nagaland went to the polls on February 27.
The Model Code of Conduct came into effect from Jan. 18 in all the three states and the counting of votes done on March 3.
Meanwhile, security forces have already started arriving in Nagaland to ensure a free and fair election. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Nagaland, Shashank Shekhar, had earlier told this newspaper that the EC have approved 305 companies of Central Police Armed Forces (CAPF) for the upcoming state general election.
The CEO also informed that a total of 2315 polling stations have been approved for the upcoming election against 2,156 polling stations in the 2018 state assembly election in view of the creation of five new districts -- Noklak, Tseminyu, Chümoukedima, Niuland and Shamator.
The tenure of incumbent Nagaland Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end on March 12, 2023.