Lok Sabha elections: 4.92 crore electors, including 11.32 lakh first-time voters in Gujarat

Gandhinagar: As many as 4.92 crore persons, including 11.32 lakh first-timers and 10,322 centenarians, will be eligible to exercise their franchise for the 26 seats in Gujarat in the Lok Sabha elections, a senior Election Commission official has said.

Elections to all the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies and bypolls to five assembly seats in Gujarat will be held on May 7, with the nomination process beginning on April 12, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P Bharathi said here on Saturday.

Of the total registered voters, 2.54 crore are men and 2.39 crore are women. The state has 1,503 transgender voters, Bharathi said.

“The number of voters for the Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat has increased by 43,23,789 compared to the 2019 elections. A total 4,94,49,469 voters are registered as per the final electoral roll published on January 5, 2024,” Bharathi told mediapersons.

The State Election Commission is fully prepared to hold the Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat, and elaborate arrangements have been made in connection with the electoral rolls, EVMs (electronic voting machines) and polling stations, said the CEO.

Special planning has been made to ensure a seamless and pleasant voting experience at polling stations, she said.

The official said that “87,042 Ballot Units (BU), 71,682 Control Units (CU) of EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines will be used across 29,568 polling stations." The process to provide voter cards to more than 16.5 lakh persons, who applied for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls after the third week of September 2023, is being done expeditiously, she said.

Each of the 182 assembly seats in the state will have a “model polling station”, which will be decorated for the occasion with selfie booths, Bharathi said, adding these booths will have facilities for parking and seating.

The CEO said 1,274 polling stations – seven per assembly seats – will be set up as “sakhi matdan mathak” and will be managed entirely by women officials.

One polling station in each assembly constituency will be managed by differently-abled individuals, while youth will take care of one such centre in every district, she said.

On the election day, live webcasting will be conducted in around 25,000 polling stations across Gujarat, she said.

Voters aged 85 and above and people with more than 40 per cent disability will be allowed to cast their ballot from home, she said.

A total of 4.5 lakh personnel, including state and central government employees, will be deployed for election-related tasks. Of these, more than 1.67 lakh are polling officers, Bharathi said.

More than 1.2 lakh police personnel will be deployed during the elections, she said.

Measures are in place to ensure seamless implementation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the official said.

“An arrangement has been made to take fast action to quickly address complaints regarding serious violation of the MCC and breach of law and order, and daily reports will be submitted to the Election Commission of India,” she added.

The Lok Sabha polls in the country will be held in seven phases spread over 44 days starting April 19, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Saturday.

Announcing the poll schedule to elect the 543-member Lok Sabha, he said that more than 97 crore persons – 49.7 crore male and 47.1 crore female – are eligible to cast their votes across 10.5 lakh polling booths in the country.