Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi addresses poll officials in a review meeting at Bhagalpur on Tuesday. Picture by Asutosh Kumar

Bhagalpur, Oct. 12: Chief election commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi today directed poll officials to conduct the upcoming Assembly elections in a free and fair manner at all costs.

“Each party and each candidate in the fray should be treated equally,” he said.

The CEC today reviewed the poll preparations with the officials from 62 constituencies spread across four divisions comprising Bhagalpur, Munger, Purnea and Kosi in south-eastern and north-eastern Bihar. As many as 37 constituencies in the areas under review will go to polls on October 21 and October 25, while the rest are slated to go to elections on November 1.

While warning the officials that “partiality on the part of officials will not be tolerated”, Quraishi expressed satisfaction over the manner in which they have been dealing with the political parties and the candidates so far. “I have spoken to the officials and the representatives of various political parties. I am quite happy at the way you are working,” he said.

He assured that there would be adequate deployment of central paramilitary forces, mainly in Naxalite-hit areas, to conduct free and fair polls. “It is for the first time that we have been checking helicopters being used for campaigning. This is to ensure that the candidates and leaders do not carry illegal money and liquor through the air route,” he said.

“Complaints from some parties that helicopters were used to transport illegal money and liquor in the last elections have prompted the exercise,” he said.

Quraishi also instructed the district officials to open single windows for quick disposal of poll-related work. He also instructed the completion of the distribution of photo identity cards among voters on a priority basis.

The CEC pointed out that the representatives from various political parties in course of their meeting with him complained about the errors in the voters’ identity cards. Some cards did not carry the correct spellings of the names, while others carried erroneous dates of birth.

While directing the officials to correct the “anomalies”, Quraishi said that there were 14 options to establish the identity of voters. They include correct photograph, correct name or correct date of birth. “A card holder, who has his card matching any of the options, cannot be deprived of his right to vote,” he said.

Quraishi, however, did not address the plight of hundreds of voters in remote hamlets of the flood-ravaged Kosi region, who would not be able to reach polling stations due to lack of boats. The Telegraph had recently highlighted the plight of such hamlets where boats have become the only option for transportation.

The district administrations concerned have seized the boats there for conducting the polls because without boats no one would be able to reach polling booths located in the region.

Quraishi, election commissioner, government of India, B.S. Sampath and state election commissioner Sudhir Kumar Rakesh spoke to the representatives of different political parties in the first session and assured them that the district administration concerned would be able to conduct free and fair polls.