Voting right of persons externed under National Security Act (NSA) will stand withdrawn, said district returning officer and collector Sudam Khade. Flanked by DIG Irshad Wali, the collector during media interaction on Thursday at Police Control Room, said that persons detained under NSA and currently in jail will be able to exercise their franchise through postal ballots. Those who have been externed, will not be allowed to vote in upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Khade added.
Stating that the number of polling booths has been rationalized this time, the returning officer informed, “over 21 lakh voters of Bhopal Parliamentary constituency will exercise their franchise in 2253 voting centres.” We will continue to generate awareness towards voting as the urban pocket registered low turn –out during assembly polls. .”
Till March 31, person can apply to BLOs for voter Identity cards and from next month, application will have to be submitted to SDM concerned of the respective areas, informed Khade. The person will have to then verify if his/her name exists in voter list as it is mandatory to cast vote, he added. “It will be our effort to rectify EVM malfunctioning within half-an-hour time as our team (technical experts) will keep an eye and ensure glitch-free polling, said Khade.
DIG Irshad Wali informed that nearly 400 polling booths are critical and 10 per cent of them will live webcast the election proceedings on the polling day. Nearly 80 per cent of total forces deputed for election duty will be ours, said Waki. We will be deputing 6000 security personnel for the elections, while the rest will be personnel of central forces, he added.
DIG further said, “Police verification of renters has been strictly followed so that there would not any untoward incident by miscreants in elections. Warrants are being executed. We have clearly given instruction to Hotels, hostels and other places where outsiders take shelters.”
