Political parties to hold talks with EC team in Patna on October 4

Political parties in poll-bound Bihar are scheduled to hold talks with a team of the Election Commission here on Saturday, an official said. The EC team, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, is likely to kick off its two-day visit to the state on Saturday, and receive feedback from representatives of recognised national and state parties. Dates for the assembly polls are likely to be announced by the EC soon. The BJP, Congress, JD(U), RJD and CPI(ML) Liberation are prominent among the parties, which will be permitted to send "up to three representatives each" for the meeting. The poll panel had on September 30 published its final electoral roll in Bihar, containing details of 7.42 crore voters, a drop of more than 47 lakh since June, when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was launched. While the BJP-led NDA has been of the view that the exercise was needed to remove "impurities" from the voters' list, in which illegal foreign immigrants may have been included in the past, the opposition has cried foul, accusing the EC of indulging in "vote theft" at the behest of the ruling coalition.