Over 30,000 officials will be on duty on April 29, when the city goes to polls. They have been assigned duties via a specially developed software by the government, which distributes duties on a random basis.

Mumbai Suburban District Collector Sachin Kurve at a press briefing in Bandra on Friday said 32,778 government servants will be on duty on the polling day. “To make sure that the delegation of duties is objective, we have made use of a software called the Polling Staff Management System developed by the National Information Centre. The software has assigned duties to all staffers based on a process called randomisation,” Mr. Kurve said.

The collector said 86 candidates will be contesting the elections, with five candidates having withdrawn their nominations on Thursday, the deadline for the same. The Mumbai Suburban area now has 18 nominations from Mumbai North, 21 from Mumbai North West, 27 from Mumbai North East, and 20 from Mumbai North Central, Mr. Kurve said.

There are 7,462 polling centres in Mumbai, and four officials have been assigned to each centre. “Teachers from unaided schools will not be working as polling staff. Arrangements have been made for the voters who are differently abled. We have also arranged a pick-up and drop facility for such voters, and they are required to share their addresses and contact details with us,” Mr. Kurve said.

The collector also said that differently abled voters can register themselves on helplines, which can be reached at 8655235714, 9869515952, and 26510020.