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Social distancing, 1 lakh polling stations, visit to Bihar: EC prepares for upcoming polls amid Covid-19
Stating total number of electors in Bihar – 72.9 million, Arora said conducting polls in India pose formidable challenges, given the vast electorate, geographical and linguistic diversity.
The Election Commission of India is gearing up for the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar by expanding resources for polling, keeping the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) disease outbreak in consideration. The Commission will boost resources deployed on ground to ensure lesser gathering and maximum following of Covid-19 safety protocols.
The Commission will also decide on visiting Bihar within the next two to three days, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said on Monday. Arora was addressing an international webinar on hosted by ECI on ‘issues, challenges and protocols for conducting elections during Covid-19.
Stating total number of electors in Bihar – 72.9 million, Arora said conducting polls in India pose formidable challenges, given the vast electorate, geographical and linguistic diversity.
The term of the 243-member Bihar assembly ends on November 29 and elections are likely to be held sometime in October-November.
The Commission has reworked the guidelines to conduct the polls in Bihar by reducing the number of electors per polling station from 1,500 to 1,000 and increasing the number of polling stations by 40 per cent from 65,000 to 1 lakh, Arora said, adding that these changes entail huge logistics and manpower implications.
The CEC added that the poll body will work on extending facilities to senior citizens, women, persons with disabilities to make the exercise more people-friendly. In a bid to include people infected by the viral contagion, Arora said the facility of postal ballot facility will be extended to Covid-19 patients who are in quarantine or are hospitalised.
Several states of India like West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu will witness polls in the first half of the year 2021.
