Campaigning for Assembly Elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh concluded on Wednesday. Polling for all 230 assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh and 70 constituencies under second phase in Chhattisgarh will be held on Friday.
In Madhya Pradesh, preparations for voting have been completed. Voting will be held tomorrow from 7 am to 6 pm.
However, in Baihar, Lanji, and Parswara assembly seats of Balaghat district and some booths of Mandla and Dindori districts, voting will be held till 3 pm.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan said that there will be a mock poll at 5.30 AM in the morning. During the mock poll, transparency of EVMs will be ensured in front of the representatives of political parties. After that the actual voting will start at 7 o’clock.
Web casting facility has been made available at 42 thousand polling stations. To ensure transparency in the movement of polling parties, a GPS system has been installed in 23 thousand 510 vehicles.
700 companies of central forces as well as 2 lakh police personnel of the state have been deployed for security during the poll.
A total of 2 thousand 533 candidates including 252 women are in the fray in Madhya Pradesh.
Akashvani’s correspondent reports that in Madhya Pradesh, there are more than 5 crore 59 lakh 83 thousand voters. Among these, the male voters are around 2 crore 87 lakh, and female voters are 2 crore 71 lakh. There are also 1 thousand 292 voters of third gender.
17 thousand 32 polling stations are declared sensitive out of a total of 64 thousand 626 polling stations in the state. 73 thousand 622 ballot units and 64 thousand 626 control units and VVPAT will be used for voting. Due to the large number of candidates, 2 ballot units are being used on 29 assembly seats and 3 on one seat.
For the first time in the state, youth have also been given the responsibility of handling 371 polling stations. There are also 5 thousand 160 pink booths run by women and 183 polling stations run by the disabled. Apart from this, 3 thousand model polling stations and 60 environment friendly green polling stations have also been created.
Meanwhile, in Chhattisgarh, polling for seventy seats in the second phase of assembly elections will be held tomorrow. State Chief Electoral Officer Reena Babasaheb Kangale talking to media persons in Raipur said that all the preparations have been done for the voting. Polling parties are reaching their designated polling stations after receiving the polling material. A total of 9 hundred and 58 candidates are in the fray in this phase. Prominent among them are Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, state Assembly Speaker Dr. Charandas Mahant, Deputy Chief Minister T.S. Singhdev, BJP state president Arun Sao, Leader of Opposition Narayan Chandel and Union Minister of State Renuka Singh. A total of eighteen thousand eight hundred thirty-three polling stations have been set up in the state for voting. Out of these, 7 hundred 27 are Sangwari booths where women polling personnel have been deployed.
Ninety thousand 2 hundred 72 personnel have been deployed to conduct peaceful and fair elections. These include 75 thousand 3 hundred 32 polling personnel and 14 thousand 9 hundred 40 reserve personnel. Apart from polling teams, 1 thousand 9 hundred 62 sector officers have been deployed for the elections. Meanwhile, the candidates are going door-to-door appealing to the voters to vote in their favour.
