The State election authority, Chief Electoral Officer’s office, is anticipating that the number voters in the State is likely to increase by around 15 lakh by the time of publication of revised electoral rolls on October 8.
The election authority had received a total of 28.58 lakh applications by the end of the September 25 deadline fixed by the Election Commission for filing of claims and objections. Of these, 12.04 lakh claims had been accepted and 1.64 lakh claims were rejected while 11.79 lakh applications are pending disposal as of Sunday. The development assumes significance in the light of complaints filed by the Opposition on the “arbitrary deletion” of over 20 lakh votes to favour the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
Auxiliary stations
With the significant rise expected in the number of voters, the election authority had accordingly decided to set up auxiliary polling stations wherever needed in addition to the 32,574 polling stations which have already been finalised.
The election authority had resolved to continue with its decision of limiting the number of voters per polling station to 1,300 in urban areas and 1,100 in rural areas keeping a cushion of 100 electors for each polling station so that late entries could be accommodated. The decision was in line with the process adopted during the rationalisation of the polling stations.
Sufficient no. of EVMs
CEO Rajat Kumar exuded confidence that the machines dispatched by the Election Commission would be sufficient to cater to the increased load of voters.
“We will take a call on the issue once the voters list is finalised. We may require more electronic voting machines and voter verifiable paper audit trail machines, but the number will be confined to few hundreds,” Dr. Rajat Kumar said. The work is expected to be completed by October 4. “Field work is almost completed and 95% work relating to digitisation of the data is also complete. The first-level checks of the equipment like EVMs and VVPATs had also been completed,” he said.
Rythu Bandhu
Replying to queries on the implementation of Rythu Bandhu second phase and distribution of Bathukamma sarees, he said the Government could refer the implementation of the ongoing schemes to the Election Commission seeking clearance under the model code of conduct so that the Commission could take a call on the issue.
“Based on the representations received, we have already forwarded the issue to the EC for further guidelines,” he said.