New Delhi, Oct 20 (ANI): The Election Commission (EC) will send three special observers to supervise the observance of the Model Code of Conduct by political parties, ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections.

G D Tripathi, Manisha Arun Patanakar and Arun Singhal, who are scheduled to visit between October 23 and 25, will tour Ahmedabad, Surat and Jamnagar, Election Commission sources said.

They will also supervise poll preparedness and conduct a revision of electoral rolls.

Another team of EC officials is also arriving in Gujarat next week to oversee poll readiness in Baroda, Surat and Ahmedabad.

The EC on Friday posted senior IPS officer S K Saikia as Ahmedabad's new Commissioner of Police and appointed G S Malik as the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) border range.

Earlier, it had posted senior IAS officer Mamta Verma as the new Collector of Gandhinagar, replacing Sonal Mishra, who was earlier shifted along with six other senior officials.

Six other senior officials are Ahmedabad Police Commissioner J Mahapatra, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Border Range) I M Desai, Superintendent of Police (Patan) J N Rajgor, SP (Rajkot) N D Solanki, SP (Tapi) S K Gadhavi and Collector of Valsad D H Brahmbhatt.

The EC had ordered the appointment of K R Kaushik as new Director General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat.

Kaushik ‘s appointment was made after the ECI on Monday ordered the transfer of DGP P C Pande, ahead of the State Assembly elections, which is scheduled to be held in December.

The EC had directed that none of the eight would be posted at any place where there was any election-related work.

The electoral process for the 12th State Assembly will begin from November 15, and state electorate will cast their votes on December 11 and December 16.

Counting of votes for the 182-member State Assembly will take place on December 23.

The Bharatiya Janata Party managed to win 127 seats, while the Congress party was able to win only 51 seats in the 2002 assembly polls.

The Janata Dal (United) and independents won two seats each. (ANI)