EC to set up over 4,000 auxiliary booths in WB

Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Sen said the booths would be set up in areas where there were more than 1,400 voters per booth.

In a bid to facilitate voting, the Election Commission has decided to set up over 4,000 auxiliary booths in West Bengal for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

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Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Sen told reporters that the auxiliary booths would be set up in areas where there were more than 1,400 voters per booth.

"These will not be separate booths, but auxiliary ones adjacent to the main booths. Over 4,000 such booths will be set up in areas where a single booth has to accommodate more than 1,400 voters," Sen said.

He said the auxiliary booths would have the same presiding officer but a separate EVM machine and additional polling persons to conduct the voting process.

Around 49,000 booths, excluding the auxiliary booths, will be set up in the state for next month's elections, he said.

The EC has also announced that about 17,000 EVM machines would be brought from Andhra Pradesh, adding to the 50,000 voting machines already available in Kolkata.

Meanwhile, Deputy Election Commissioner R Balakrishnan would arrive in Kolkata on Monday to review the poll preparedness in West Bengal and implementation of the Commission's directives.