The fate of 13 candidates, from various political parties and independents, in the fray for the Gautam Budh Nagar parliamentary constituency comprising Noida, Dadri, Jewar, Sikandrabad and Khurja assembly segments, will be decided on Thursday.

The Gautam Budh Nagar parliamentary constituency has a total of 22,97,478 voters, of whom 12,63,065 are men, 10,34,280 are women and 133 are of the third gender.

The Gautam Budh Nagar administration is all set to conduct the Lok Sabha election with over 10,000 police personnel and paramilitary forces being deployed in various parts of the district to ensure safe and fair polling.

The administration officials have claimed that all required precautions and measures have been taken as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India so that residents can freely exercise their right to vote.

Over the course of the past one month, the district administration had reached out to educational institutions and civil society to help it in spreading election related awareness among the general public and other stakeholders. It left no stone unturned to ensure more people came out to vote in the district this time as compared to previous years. The Election Commission of India had asked all districts to enrol the maximum number of eligible people voters on the rolls.

“Security and police forces have been deployed in the district. There is good coordination between officials from various departments. Around 10,000 police personnel and those from the paramilitary forces will be present when the district votes. The staff and security personnel reached polling stations by 7pm Wednesday. The polling will start at 7am Thursday,” Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, Gautam Budh Nagar, said.

Residents said they are looking forward to voting to elect the new government of India in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls.

“I have been working with the administration to spread awareness on the importance of casting our votes. I am looking forward to vote on Thursday. The polling facilities are much better in the urban areas so that residents living in Noida should come out in big numbers. We are expecting that the percentage of urban voters will increase this time,” Madan Lal, former Indian cricketer and a resident of Sector 26, said.

Resident’s welfare associations also have been trying to convince people to come out and vote. “There is a lot of excitement among the people this time and the number of urban voters should increase. We have been holding meetings with residents asking them to vote. People are looking forward to exercising their franchise,” AN Dhawan, secretary general, Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Associations, said.

First Published: Apr 11, 2019 10:23 IST