With just over a week to go for the Delhi Assembly elections on February 8, the Election Commission of India on Friday reviewed preparations, including the law and order situation in the capital, for polling day and appointed two special observers.
The ECI held a meeting with the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer, State government and police officials to review poll preparations. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the poll panel “would be ready to handhold whenever required but field level officers should take swift action wherever warranted to ensure fair, just, legal and impartial elections”, an ECI statement said. He asked officers to focus on law and order arrangements in the border districts of Delhi.
Delhi CEO Ranbir Singh said preparations had been made for peaceful polling, including in the border areas. The review meeting, which is a routine affair ahead of polling, was held a day after the city saw violence in Jamia Nagar, when a young man opened fire on a group of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters.
The ECI said in another statement that after the review with officers in Delhi, the Commission had appointed retired Indian Revenue Service officer B. Murli Kumar as a special expenditure observer and retired Indian Police Service officer Mrinal Kanti Das as special police observer for the Delhi Assembly elections. Mr. Murli Kumar would be supervising the work of the election machinery against the use of cash, liquor and other freebies to induce voters, the statement said. Mr. Das, who retired as Director General of Police of Manipur, would oversee the deployment of police and other law and order issues, the ECI said.
