Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan announced on Tuesday that individuals aged 85 years and above will now have the option to vote from their homes, providing them with greater convenience during the electoral process. Providing insights into the voter demographics, Rajan mentioned that Madhya Pradesh has a total voter count of 5,64,76,110, comprising 2.90 crores males and 2.74 crores females.
Highlighting specific voter groups, Rajan noted that there are 16,49,641 new voters in the 18 to 19 age group and 2,89,503 voters aged 85 years and above. He mentioned that the process of adding names to the voter list will continue until 10 days before the nomination filing deadline.
In a significant development, the Election Commission introduced the ‘vote-from-home’ facility for citizens above 85 years and persons with disabilities during the Lok Sabha elections. This initiative allows eligible voters in these categories to cast their votes from the comfort of their homes. The commission also assured that polling stations would be equipped with volunteers, wheelchairs, and transport facilities to assist persons with disabilities and elderly voters.
Addressing law and order concerns, Rajan stated that 1.25 lakh weapons had been collected, and 152 illegal weapons seized thus far. Additionally, more than 500 checkpoints were established across the state for monitoring purposes.
Rajan also outlined various measures to ensure a smooth electoral process, including live streaming at over 50% of polling stations, GPS installation in vehicles transporting EVM machines, and deployment of 5.5 lakh personnel for election duties. He mentioned the establishment of 3,500 Pink polling booths and a total of 64,503 polling stations in the state.
Providing specific details about polling distribution, Rajan mentioned that the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency would have the lowest number of booths (1,934), while Mandla would have the highest (2,614). Similarly, Chhindwara had the lowest number of voters at 16,32,074, whereas the Indore parliamentary seat had the highest at 25,13,424.
The Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh will be conducted in four phases, with the first phase scheduled for April 19 and the final phase on May 15. Bhopal’s voting will occur during the third phase of the polls.
