Telangana poll dates only after ECI team's visit today

HYDERABAD: Decision on assembly elections in Telangana will be taken only after a team of Election Commission of India officials visit the state on Tuesday and submit a report to ECI on the state’s preparedness to hold early polls.
Sources said at least an 8-10 member team will be descending on Hyderabad to take stock of poll preparedness and arrangements.The team, which will be led by deputy election commissioner Umesh Sinha, will also be meeting representatives of various political parties.
‘No decision yet on polling dates for T’
Telangana chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar, who met senior officials of ECI in Delhi on Monday, told newsmen that no decision had been taken yet on the polling dates for Telangana assembly. He said his meeting with the ECI top brass focused mainly on logistics and the state’s preparedness to hold the elections. Rajat Kumar apprised the ECI of the state’s preparedness for conducting the elections.
In his four-hour long discussion, the CEO also dwelt upon electoral rolls, availability of EVMs, poll staffers, law and order precautions, election infrastructure, etc. Legal issues that could crop up during the elections and concerns raised by the opposition parties, besides voting pattern relating to seven mandals which were integrated with Andhra Pradesh had also come up for discussion, sources said.
In a related development, chief secretary SK Joshi and director general of police Mahender Reddy held a meeting on the visit of ECI team.
Meanwhile, district collectors are preparing officials for the upcoming polls by conducting awareness campaigns on voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) and EVMs. The ECI had already revised the schedule for publishing electoral rolls, the exercise of which has now been advanced to October 8.