Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will interact with students at his alma mater—Colvin Taluqdars’ College—and booth level officers (BLOs) during his two-day visit to Lucknow commencing on Monday (August 24).
Kumar will lead an Election Commission of India (ECI) delegation during the visit. The ECI delegation will include senior deputy election commissioner Manish Garg, director general (Media) Ashish Goyal, and director general (IT) Seema Khanna. The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are due early next year.
“The primary objective of the ECI delegation’s visit is to strengthen the electoral process at the grassroots level, engage youth and future voters with the electoral system, promote electoral literacy, and interact directly with Booth Level Officers (BLOs)—a crucial pillar of the electoral machinery—to gain firsthand insight into their experiences and suggestions,” said UP chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa in a press statement.
On August 24 morning, the CEC will participate in an interaction with students at Awadh auditorium of Colvin Taluqdars’ College. The CEC received his early education at Colvin Taluqdars’ College. In the afternoon, he will attend the regional conference on Electoral Literacy Club (ELC) 2.0 and ECINET (Electoral Service Platform) as the chief guest at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan (IGP), Lucknow.
On August 25, he will hold a direct interaction with approximately 500 BLOs from Lucknow and neighbouring districts at IGP.
{{/usCountry}}On August 25, he will hold a direct interaction with approximately 500 BLOs from Lucknow and neighbouring districts at IGP.
{{/usCountry}}“BLOs serve as the most crucial link between the electoral machinery and the voters. They play a vital role in key tasks such as updating the electoral roll, enrolling eligible voters, conducting door-to-door outreach, and performing ground-level verification regarding entries for deceased or relocated voters, as well as other necessary updates,” the CEO said.
Rinwa said the ECI’s two-day event serves a dual purpose—on one hand, it offers students and future voters an opportunity to gain a practical understanding of the electoral process; on the other hand it provides a platform for meaningful dialogue aimed at making the electoral process more effective, accessible, and transparent by leveraging the grassroots experiences and suggestions of the BLOs.
The regional conferences on ELC and ECINET in the state will be organised in three phases: Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi. The first phase—the Lucknow regional conference—will be attended by deputy district election officers, district inspectors of schools, and media nodal officers from 20 districts — Shahjahanpur, Ayodhya, Barabanki, Sultanpur, Amethi, Gonda, Bahraich, Mainpuri, Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, Auraiya, Etawah, Kannauj, Pratapgarh, Lucknow, Hardoi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Rae Bareli, Sitapur, and Unnao, he said.
Additionally, approximately 1,500 participants, including students, teachers, principals, and heads of institutions from 440 educational institutions across 120 assembly constituencies in these 20 districts, will take part. Senior officials of the rank of additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries, and secretaries from state government departments will also attend the event, he said.
To make the conference experiential and participatory, three stalls have been set up where participants will receive information—through live demonstrations—on various aspects of voter registration, the voting process, and the vote-counting process.
Voter Literacy Clubs will encourage students who are already eligible to register as voters—or who will become eligible in the near future—to register. Furthermore, emphasis will be placed on fostering an understanding among the youth regarding the importance of their voting rights, ethical voting, and responsible participation in the democratic process, he said.