6.23 crore voters set to vote in Tamil Nadu
Update: 2024-04-19 04:30 GMT
Chennai: In the first phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, 6.23 crore voters - 3.06 crore men, 3.17 crore women and 8,467 members of the third gender - will exercise their franchise to elect 39 MPs from Tamil Nadu from among the 950 contestants, 76 of them women, in the fray with about 1.3 lakh police personnel, including 190 companies of the Central Armed Police Force, keeping a close watch on the entire electoral proceedings.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo said on Thursday that the Election Commission was fully prepared to conduct the polls in a free and fair manner. For the first time free transport would be provided to people with disabilities (PwD) and those aged above 85 if they booked for the facility through Saksham App or call 1950.
While PwD comprises 4.61 lakh of the total electorate, 6.14 lakh are aged 85 years and above, the CEO said, adding that first time voters (18 -19 years) alone account for 10.92 lakh.
Polling will start at 7 am and go on till 6 pm in 68,321 polling stations. Tokens would be issued from the last voter standing in the queue at 6 pm and facilitate them to exercise their franchise, Sahoo said. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4 at 39 counting centres in the State.
Arrangements have been to webcast polling from 44,801 (65 percent) stations. A total of 3.32 lakh polling personnel have been involved in the exercise and 15 companies of CRPF would be deployed at counting centres in addition to the local police personnel, Sahoo said.
About 8,050 vulnerable polling stations and 181 critical polling stations have been identified and an additional 3,500 personnel from the Andhra Pradesh Armed Police force and 4,500 persons from the Home Guards of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana would be deployed in those booths.
On the number of the EVMs used for the polls, he said the Election Commission had moved 1,58,568 Ballot Units, 81,157 Control Units and 86,858 VVPATs. Of them about 325 Ballot Units, 326 Control Units and 346 VVPATs would be used for the by-election in the Vilavancode assembly constituency in Kanyakumari district.
Voters could locate their polling stations on https://electoralsearch.eci.gov.in/pollingstation
All eligible voters whose names figure in the electoral rolls should carry any one of the following documents: Voter ID Card, Aadhaar Card, Pan Card, Unique Disability ID, Service Identity Card, Passbook Issued by Bank, MGNREGA Job Card, Health Insurance, Driving Licence, Passport, Smart Card, Pension Document and Official Identity Card.
Till Thursday,election officials had seized cash worth Rs 173.85 crore, liquor valued at Rs 6.67 crore, drugs/narcotics worth Rs 1.13 crore, precious metal: Rs 1,083.77 crore and other items/freebies for Rs 35.78 crore, thus totally to Rs 1,301.22 crore, he said.
A total of 3,32,233 polling personnel had already been given three levels of training for the job and 39 general observers, 20 police observers and 58 expenditure observers had been deployed, he said.
Through C-Vigil the facility started to enable citizens lodge complaints of Model Code of Conduct violations, 4,861 complaints were received and 3,855 of them were found to be valid.
Talking about MCC violations, he said 3,71,129 cases had been recorded and 3,41,711 defacement public walls had been removed. Defacements of private walls that were removed amounted to 1,29,005.
Sahoo hoped that the polling percentage on Friday would go up as a sustained campaign was carried out by the Election Commission. Sahoo himself sang a song for a video, urging the youth to cast their votes.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo said on Thursday that the Election Commission was fully prepared to conduct the polls in a free and fair manner. For the first time free transport would be provided to people with disabilities (PwD) and those aged above 85 if they booked for the facility through Saksham App or call 1950.
While PwD comprises 4.61 lakh of the total electorate, 6.14 lakh are aged 85 years and above, the CEO said, adding that first time voters (18 -19 years) alone account for 10.92 lakh.
Polling will start at 7 am and go on till 6 pm in 68,321 polling stations. Tokens would be issued from the last voter standing in the queue at 6 pm and facilitate them to exercise their franchise, Sahoo said. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4 at 39 counting centres in the State.
Arrangements have been to webcast polling from 44,801 (65 percent) stations. A total of 3.32 lakh polling personnel have been involved in the exercise and 15 companies of CRPF would be deployed at counting centres in addition to the local police personnel, Sahoo said.
About 8,050 vulnerable polling stations and 181 critical polling stations have been identified and an additional 3,500 personnel from the Andhra Pradesh Armed Police force and 4,500 persons from the Home Guards of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana would be deployed in those booths.
On the number of the EVMs used for the polls, he said the Election Commission had moved 1,58,568 Ballot Units, 81,157 Control Units and 86,858 VVPATs. Of them about 325 Ballot Units, 326 Control Units and 346 VVPATs would be used for the by-election in the Vilavancode assembly constituency in Kanyakumari district.
Voters could locate their polling stations on https://electoralsearch.eci.gov.in/pollingstation
All eligible voters whose names figure in the electoral rolls should carry any one of the following documents: Voter ID Card, Aadhaar Card, Pan Card, Unique Disability ID, Service Identity Card, Passbook Issued by Bank, MGNREGA Job Card, Health Insurance, Driving Licence, Passport, Smart Card, Pension Document and Official Identity Card.
Till Thursday,election officials had seized cash worth Rs 173.85 crore, liquor valued at Rs 6.67 crore, drugs/narcotics worth Rs 1.13 crore, precious metal: Rs 1,083.77 crore and other items/freebies for Rs 35.78 crore, thus totally to Rs 1,301.22 crore, he said.
A total of 3,32,233 polling personnel had already been given three levels of training for the job and 39 general observers, 20 police observers and 58 expenditure observers had been deployed, he said.
Through C-Vigil the facility started to enable citizens lodge complaints of Model Code of Conduct violations, 4,861 complaints were received and 3,855 of them were found to be valid.
Talking about MCC violations, he said 3,71,129 cases had been recorded and 3,41,711 defacement public walls had been removed. Defacements of private walls that were removed amounted to 1,29,005.
Sahoo hoped that the polling percentage on Friday would go up as a sustained campaign was carried out by the Election Commission. Sahoo himself sang a song for a video, urging the youth to cast their votes.