E-Paper
Preparations completed for 2nd phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh: chief electoral officer
Uttar Pradesh CEO says that polling will be conducted across 17,704 polling booths, utilising 17,230 EVM control units, 17,331 ballot units, and 17,443 VVPATs.
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa on Thursday said that the Election Commission of India has completed preparations for conducting free, fair, peaceful, inducement-free, inclusive, and safe voting in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies scheduled for polling on Friday.
Polling in eight Lok Sabha constituencies, including Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr (SC), Aligarh, and Mathura, would take place from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, he said.
“A total of 91 candidates are contesting in the 8 Lok Sabha constituencies, with 10 women candidates. Gautam Buddha Nagar and Mathura Lok Sabha seats have the maximum 15 candidates each, while Bulandshahr (SC) seat has the minimum of 6 candidates. There are 17,704 polling booths and 7,797 polling stations in the second phase, of which 3,472 polling booths have been identified as sensitive,” he said.
Rinwa further said that to maintain vigilance during polling, the Commission had deployed three special observers, eight general observers, five police observers, twelve expenditure observers, 1,451 sector magistrates, 190 zonal magistrates, 222 static magistrates, and 1,599 micro-observers across the eight constituencies.
“The ECI has assigned 79,338 polling personnel to conduct the election process. A total of 17,230 EVM control units, 17,331 ballot units, and 17,443 VVPATs will be used for voting in the elections. Adequate paramilitary forces have been deployed to ensure peaceful elections. The security of the strong room, where the EVMs will be stored, has been entrusted to paramilitary forces,” he said.
“The air ambulance and helicopters will be stationed at Meerut and Aligarh for medical assistance during the polling. Live webcasting of 50% of polling booths will be conducted for the supervision of the polling process at three levels by the district election officer, chief electoral officer, and the Election Commission of India. Arrangements for videography have been made at 967 polling booths,” he added.
He added that in the second phase, there were 148 model polling stations, 53 all-women-managed polling stations, 35 all-youth polling stations, and 32 all-disabled-managed polling stations. Voters who were present at the polling booths at 6 pm would be permitted to exercise their franchise.
