The Election Commission has been visiting the five poll-bound states over the last two months, with a 17-member delegation, headed by Chief Election Commission Rajiv Kumar, reaching Hyderabad in Telangana on Tuesday to oversee the preparations.
The term of the Mizoram assembly, with 40 members, is ending in December while that of the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly and three more states are ending in January. The assemblies of Madhya Pradesh (230-member), Rajasthan (200-member) and Telangana (119-member) will also go to polls in the coming weeks.
According to the schedule, the EC is likely to announce the dates for the elections in these states this month.
In August, the EC delegation visited Mizoram and Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in September. This week, they will go to Telangana.
The EC is aiming to improve voter turnout across all five states, and ensure basic facilities in all polling stations. For senior voters and persons with disabilities (PwDs), the option of home voting is being provided. To ensure more voter participation, women, youth and PwDs will be made in charges of more polling stations. At least 50% polling stations will have a webcasting facility across each state.
To improve people’s participation, the EC’s cVIGIL app will be used for reporting MCC (Model Code of Conduct) violations. Also, for free and fair elections, strict vigilance across the borders will also being implemented.
The EC is also conducting special outreach campaigns across the states to ensure maximum participation.
Let’s look at the state-wise preparations:
Mizoram
Mizoram has 8.38 lakh voters, including 4.32 lakh women. The state has a gender ratio of 1,060. There are 40,934 first time voters in the state.
As per the ECI officials, the state will have 1,276 polling stations, including 751 in rural areas. There are 657 voters per polling station on an average across the 40 assemblies.
To enhance inclusiveness and encourage more voters to participate in the upcoming assembly, at least 95 stations will be managed by women – all polling officials including security staff will be women – and 40 by youngsters. Also, there will be 11 stations that will be managed by persons with disabilities.
The EC is also offering home voting facilities for more than 9,000 voters who are above 80 years and more than 3,000 PwD voters. This time, they will be given an option to vote from the comfort of their homes.
Further, to ensure that no voter is left behind, the EC teams are travelling long distances across the difficult terrains. There are 22 non-motorable polling stations in the state and 19 riverine polling stations are accessible only by boat.
Chhattisgarh
The term of Bhupesh Baghel’s government in the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly is ending on January 3.
The state, with 1.97 crore voters, will have 24,109 polling stations. There are 815 voters per station on an average. Just 4,853 polling stations are in urban areas while the rest are in rural areas.
The state has more than 4.43 lakh first time voters. The roll gender ratio in the state is 1,003.
Home voting facility is being provided for 1.47 lakh PwDs, 2.02 lakh lakh voters who are above the age of 80 years, and 2,948 voters who are above the age of 100 years.
Ensuring the polling stations are there even in the last mile, the EC is setting up 112 stations that are non-motorable. At least 105 check posts will be set up, including 31 by the excise department and 35 by the forest department.
Madhya Pradesh
The term of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly will end on January 6.
The state, with 5.52 crore voters, will have 64,523 polling stations. The roll gender ratio stood at 936 and the average voter per polling station is 843.
Madhya Pradesh has 2.67 crore female voters, and at least 5,000 polling stations across the state will be managed by women.
The home voting facility will be provided for 4.85 lakh PwD voters and 7.12 lakh voters above 80 years and nearly 6,180 voters over 100 years of age.
The state has more than 18.86 lakh first time voters and at least 1,150 polling stations will be manned by youngsters.
Rajasthan
The term of Congress government in Rajasthan will end on January 14. Out of the total 200 seats in the state, 141 are general while 25 belong to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) and 34 to the Scheduled Caste (SC) categories.
The state has 5.25 crore voters, including 2.51 crore women and 604 transgender. Rajasthan has an elector gender ratio of 920, and nearly 22 lakh first time voters.
The state will have 51,756 polling stations with an average of 1,002 voters each. Out of the total polling stations, 41,341 are in rural areas. The EC is ensuring that 200 stations are managed by PwD, 1,600 each by youth and women. Last time, there were no PwD-managed polling stations and those manned by women were 250.
The home voting facility will also be provided in the state for around 12 lakh voters who are above the age of 80 years, around 18,500 voters who are above the age of 100 years and 5.61 lakh PwD voters. For the strict vigil, more than 350 check posts will be established, including 251 by police.
The ECI will also focus on enhancing voter turnout in the state.
In the 2018 elections, the total turnout was 74.71% in which females outperformed males (73.83%) with 74.68% voting. However, in at least 95 assemblies and nearly 25,000 polling stations, female voter turnout was lower than men. The ECI is aiming to improve the overall turnout to 75%.
Telangana
The EC is currently in Telangana finalising the planning and working on the election details. The poll body will issue the details for the state this week.
In the last elections, the state had 2.61 crore voters and 32,574 polling stations. It is expected to go up this time.
In the 2018 assembly elections, the five states went for polling from November 12. Apart from Chhattisgarh, all the states witnessed single phase elections. Rajasthan and Telangana went last for polling on December 7. The date of counting was December 11.
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