Gujarat Assembly elections: EC to set up 50,100 booths for over 4.33 crore voters

EC plans to set up over 50,100 polling booths across the state to enable over 4,33,00,000 voters to cast their votes in the upcoming Assembly election. (Representational image)

The Election Commission plans to set up over 50,100 polling booths across the state to enable over 4,33,00,000 voters to cast their votes in the upcoming Assembly election. Compared to the last Assembly elections, 52 lakh more voters are expected to exercise their franchise. This will include 2,25,00,000 men ( a rise of 11.9 per cent from 2012) and 2,07,00,000 women ( rise of 14.4 per cent), according to the preliminary data compiled by the Election Commission. The poll panel is also expected to add more than 5,000 polling booths.

The Election Commission’s decision to allocate a maximum of 1,200 voters in each rural booth and 1,400 voters in an urban booth have also caused the numbers of booths to rise, official sources said. The Election Commission has already carried out physical verification of locations of all the existing and new polling booths to find out if voters have to cross canals, rivers or ravines to reach the booth.

The verification is also meant to ascertain if the voters are required to cover more than two km, and if the office of any political party is located within 200 meters of the polling booth. The Elector-Population (EP) ratio of Gujarat — which represents the percentage of voters as compared to the total population of the state — has increased to 64.34 per cent from 61.87 per cent in 2012.