Fate of 930 candidates to be locked in EVMs today

Prayagraj: The fate of a total of 930 candidates including 21 mayoral and 909 corporator post candidates will be locked in electronic voting machines (EVMs) as a total of 15,76,713 voters, including 8,79,930 men, and 6,96,783women are also set to cast their vote at 1,180 polling booths on Thursday.
The authorities of district election office on Wednesday dispatched a total of 1,180 polling parties to conduct the urban local body polls in city. The polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm.
While polling for mayoral and corporator post for nagar nigam in city will be held through Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs), voting for eight nagar panchayats including Lalgopalganj, Mauaima, Phulpur, Handia, Sirsa, Bharatganj, Koraon and Shankargar will be held through ballot papers.
There are 100 wards in Prayagraj municipal corporation and for that, as many as 1,180 booths have been set up. Officials of district election office, however, said that as many as 1,45,934 voters will also cast their vote at 127 polling booths for eight nagar panchayats.
Around 7,000 officials and employees have assigned duties to conduct urban local body and nagar panchayat polls smoothly.
ADM (Finance) Jagdamba Singh told TOI, “ In nagar nigam polls, there will be one presiding officer and four election officers (One plus four ) will be at a single polling booth in city. Besides, there will be one presiding officer and three polling officials will be at every polling booth for nagar panchayat election in trans-Ganga and trans-Yamuna pockets.
Interestingly, Naini Dadari ward in trans-Yamuna has the highest number voters while Jahagirabad ward has the lowest number of voters. There are a total of 100 wards in Prayagraj nagar nigam. The highest number of 32,090 voters including 17,879 men and 41,211 women registered in Naini Dadri while Jahagirpuri ward in old city has the lowest number (8,166) voters including 4,591 men and 3,575 women.
Moreover, there are two wards in nagar nigam which have more than 30,000 voters including Naini Dadri (32,090) and Shams Nagar (30,486) while there are at least 11 wards of the city which have more than 20,000 voters including Sulemsarai, Jhulelal Nagar, Shahganj Garisaray, Allenganj, Teliyarganj, Kasiraj Nagar, Baghambari Housing scheme, Minhajpur Garikala and Tagore town.
Figures also revealed that there are at least four wards in city which have less than 10,000 voters including Sonauti, Gohri, Jahagirabad, and Govindpur. Records further claimed there were 14,02,641 voters in 80 wards of the nagar nigam in 2017 which has now increased up to 15,76, 713 voters in 100 wards of nagar nigam. Apart from rise of 20 wards in nagar nigam, more than one lakh voters have also been added in the nagar nigam voters list.
Apart from nagar nigam, there are eight nagar panchayats in the district including Lalgopalganj, Mauaima, Phulpur, Handia, Sirsa, Bharatganj, Koroan and Shankargarh. There were a total of 1,45, 934 voters including 76,411 men and 69,523 women voters in eight nagar panchayats. Highest number of voters (29,669) were registered in Lalgopalganj nagar panchayat and which is closely followed by Phulpur (23,382), Handia (20,859), Bharatganj (17,550), Maiaima (16,235), Shankargarh (15,122), Koraon ( 12,605) and Sirsa (10,512). Additional DCP and Nodal officer (elections) Ravi Shankar Nim, meanwhile, told TOI, “The district has been divided into 27 zones and 126 sectors.Adequate security arrangements have been made for urban local body polls. A large posse of policemen including eight DCP\ADCP, 16 ACPs, 62 inspectors, 680 sub-inspectors, 3000 constables, 2800 homeguards, 62 QRTs, five companies of PAC, one company of BSF, 16 teams each of flying squad and static teams have been deployed to conduct free and fair polls”.