The date of election in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) is likely to be announced after November 15. The election to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) was scheduled to be held on April 4 but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
State election commissioner Alok Kumar was quoted as saying by The Assam Tribune that the date would be announced only after November 15.
Kumar said that the state government has requested the commission to conduct polls in December and they are getting ready accordingly.
He also added that if the poll process is not completed by December, a new complication would arise as the electoral roll would have to be revised.
The guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for conducting elections in Bihar would be followed by the state election commission.
However, unlike Bihar, no EVMs would be used in the BTC elections as the number of voters is not as high as Bihar. The elections will be conducted with ballot papers.
Kumar also revealed that the ECI has not provided the EVMs, and procuring machines on its own would result in incurring heavy expenditure.
Kumar said that the list of candidates is ready as the process of filing and scrutiny of nominations were completed before the elections had to be postponed.
