Bhubaneswar: The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha, Surendra Kumar, held an all-party meeting in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera from ruling BJD, Samir Mohanty and Pitambar Acharya from BJP and Congress vice president Shivananda Ray attended the meeting to discuss various steps for free and fair elections.
During the meeting, the CEO said that a notification regarding electoral roll revision for the upcoming general elections will be issued tomorrow. “The electoral roll revision will be conducted between September 1 and October 31. More emphasis will be given to include differently-abled persons and women in the revised electoral roll,” he added.
During the meeting, BJP demanded rationalisation of reformation of 36,000 booths in the state. Besides, there were demands to bring transparency in the electoral roll.
Congress also alleged irregularities in the electoral roll. However, BJD dismissed the allegations of any irregularities in the electoral roll.
On the other hand, Congress and CPI and CPM raised questions over use of EVMs in the election. They proposed for ballot papers instead of EVM during the election.
Apart from revision in electoral roll, appointment of agents at booth level, use of electronic voting machines and voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) and formation of new booths were also discussed during the meeting.
Comments are closed.