Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar today said that the campaign period for 43 seats in the first phase of the assembly elections has ended. Preparations for voting have been completed. On Monday, out of 225, polling personnel have been sent to 194 polling stations through heli-dropping. Polling personnel will be sent to the remaining booths through heli-dropping on Tuesday. He said that there will be no helidropping in the second phase.
In the first phase, voting will be held on November 13 from 7 am to 5 pm. The voting time at 950 booths will be 4 pm, but people standing in the queue will be able to vote even after the end of the voting time. He said that political leaders and workers who have gone from outside for election campaigning etc. to the polling area have to leave that place immediately. Only those who are voters of that area will be able to stay there. He said that the Election Commission has a clear guideline that no outsider will stay in the polling area. In this, the decision for exemption in case of illness will be based on the result of the medical board's examination. Kumar was addressing a press conference at Nirvachan Sadan, Dhurva on Monday.
He said that the privacy of voting is mandatory. In this situation, carrying a mobile, taking photos, and making videos inside the polling booth is illegal. There is also a provision of punishment if caught doing so. Action was also taken after such cases were caught during the Lok Sabha elections.
The CEO said that a total of 1.37 crore voters will participate in the voting in the first phase of elections. Among them, male voters are 68.73 lakh and female voters are 68.36 lakh. The number of third gender voters is 303. The number of voters above 85 years is 63,601. Whereas, the number of Divyang voters is 1.91 lakh. The number of voters in the age group of 18-19 years is 6.51 lakh.
He said that in the first phase, voting will be held on a total of 43 assembly seats. Out of that, 17 seats are reserved for general, 20 for scheduled tribes and 6 for scheduled castes. 683 candidates are in the fray from these 43 seats. Among them, 609 are men, 73 are women and one candidate is from the third gender. A total of 15,344 polling booths have been set up for the first phase of elections. Out of that, 12,716 booths are located in rural areas and 2,628 booths in urban areas. Out of these, 50 booths are in the unique category. The responsibility of the entire voting process at 1,152 polling stations will be in the hands of women. Whereas, the responsibility of 23 booths will be handled by youth and the responsibility of 24 booths will be handled by disabled people.
Kumar informed that since the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, a total of 179 crore 14 lakh illegal material and cash has been seized. He informed that so far 54 cases have been registered for violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
Meanwhile, the CEO today said that work is being done with determination to ensure that all candidates get equal opportunity in the assembly elections. He has said that the Election Commission of India has directed to take strict action against the officials engaged in election work if any kind of bias is found towards any candidate or political party or if anyone is found to be providing special protection to anyone.
In this sequence, on Monday, during a conversation with the in-charge/members of the Indian National Congress Party in the office premises, in the case of violation of the Model Code of Conduct by Sanjay Prasad Srivastava, Under Secretary, Cabinet (Election) Department, Jharkhand, he has been suspended from service with immediate effect and instructions have been given to return his service to the Department of Personnel, Administrative Improvement and Official Language, Jharkhand, Ranchi.
