EC says ready for polls after August with revised roll

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission will be able to hold the next general election as per the new delimitation map after August 31, by when the revised rolls for all but five states would be ready.

Sharing this information with mediapersons on Friday, chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami said that the rolls for the newly delimited constituencies would be published latest by August 31, after which the EC will be prepared to hold polls in states where the assembly is close to completing their term as well as the next Lok Sabha election.

Incidentally, even as the national deadline for implementation of the Delimitation Commission���s report has been set for August 31, the schedule for drawing up the rolls for freshly delimited constituencies varies from state to state. While the delimitation procedure may take only a month in smaller states like those in the north-east as well as the UTs, the time required in bigger states like UP could stretch to 4-5 months.

The preparation of the rolls as per the new delimitation map is on since February, when a meeting between EC and CEOs of the states/UTs decided to start the process without waiting for the Presidential notification giving effect to the report of the Delimitation Commission.

The August 31 timeframe would make it possible for the EC to hold elections on time in states like Jammu & Kashmir, where polls are due in October, as well as in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the term of the assembly expires in December.

The EC, as a matter of convention, announces elections only after the electoral rolls are published. As for the Lok Sabha election, it is due only in May 2009. With there being little indication of the general election being advanced, the EC has enough time on its hand to prepare for the mammoth exercise.

The Delimitation Commission has completed the delimitation work in all but five states ��� Jharkhand and the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Assam.

Karnataka, where the assembly poll concluded on Thursday, was the first state to go to polls as per the redrawn constituencies.