Special focus during the general elections would be on ‘expenditure-sensitive’ constituencies, but this status of a constituency could change based on the party, candidates and other factors dynamically, said District Election Officer G. Veerapandian.

At a joint press conference here on Sunday, Mr. Veerapandian said about 42,615 applications in form 6, 6A, 7, 8 & 8A were pending before the District Election Office as on Sunday afternoon. About 33,000 applications made for deletions and contested through 25 complaints at various police stations in the district were scrutinised and more than 25,000 of them were rejected, the DEO said.

Out of the current pending applications, 12,200 would be approved immediately and 28,400 had to wait for varying periods depending on the provisions of the ECI Rules for verification. The officials had set up 3,879 polling stations in the district at 2,209 locations.

In the 14 Assembly constituencies and two Parliamentary constituencies, currently there are 30,58,909 voters. Of them, 204 are of third gender and 15,39,936 male voters and 15,18,769 female voters. There are 1,927 service voters.

Superintendent of Police G.V.G. Ashok Kumar said three check-posts per Assembly constituency were being set up, which would be manned by police and excise officials. Complaints could be made to the District Election Officer through toll-free number 1950, C-Vigil App or website. For candidates, Suvidha App had been developed, added Mr. Veerapandian.

Challenging task

The election machinery would be on toes in monitoring contents disseminated through social media to voters 24 x7, Prakasam Collector and District Election Officer V.Vinay Chand said.

Addressing the media, Mr. Vinay Chand said though keeping track of the posts on social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube to woo voters would be a challenging one, the machinery, by engaging specialist private agencies at the State and district levels for the purpose, would rise to the occasion.

As many as 36 criminal cases were registered against ‘mischief-mongers’ after rejecting 37,428 of the 49,098 form-7 applications filed by them, he said.

The administration was fully geared to hold free and fair elections in the 12 Assembly segments coming under Ongole (7), Bapatla(4) and Nellore(1) in the district with an electorate of 25.17 lakh, including 12.91 lakh women, he said, adding 10,893 balloting units, 8,250 controlling units and 8,914 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were kept in readiness for use in 3,269 polling stations.