India - 3 days ago

Voting on November 20, Arrangements Ready – Chief Election Officer S. Chockalingam Maharashtra Assembly General Election 2024

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Mumbai : Voting for the Maharashtra Assembly General Election 2024 and Nanded Lok Sabha By-Election will be held on November 20, 2024. Voting will occur in a single phase across 288 Assembly constituencies and for the Nanded Lok Sabha by-election. Arrangements have been made for voting at 1,00,427 polling booths for 9 crore 70 lakh 25 thousand 119 voters in the state. The voting time is from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) teams have been deployed at sensitive polling booths. The administration has completed all preparations, and Chief Election Officer S. Chockalingam has urged the voters to participate in large numbers.

Details of Assembly General Election 2024 are as follows:

Sr. No.	Constituencies	Polling Booths	Auxiliary Booths	Critical Booths	Candidates	Ballot Units (BU)	Control Units (CU)	VVPAT Machines
1	288	1,00,186	241	990	4,136	1,64,996	1,19,430	1,28,531

Out of the total 1,00,427 polling booths in the state, webcasting will be conducted at 67,557 booths during the Assembly General Election 2024.

Voter Statistics:

Sr. No.	Details (As of 30.10.2024)	Male Voters	Female Voters	Third Gender Voters	Total
1	Total Voters	5,00,22,739	4,69,96,279	6,101	9,70,25,119
2	Divyang (PwD) Voters	3,84,069	2,57,317	39	6,41,425
3	Service Voters	1,12,318	3,852	–	1,16,170

For the by-election of the 16 – Nanded Lok Sabha Constituency:

Sr. No.	Constituency Name	Male Voters	Female Voters	Third Gender Voters	Total	Candidates
1	16 Nanded Lok Sabha	9,78,234	9,30,158	154	19,08,546	19

The materials and equipment required for the Assembly General Election 2024 have been provided at polling booths. Adequate trained polling staff and officers have been appointed, and police personnel have been deployed. Randomization has been done for this manpower to assign them duties.

Other Preparations:

Testing and randomization of EVM and VVPAT machines are complete, and sealing has been done constituency-wise for all 288 Assembly constituencies.
CRPF teams have been deployed at sensitive polling booths.
Voter guides have been distributed door-to-door to raise awareness about voting. Voter slips have also been made available to voters.

The provision for home voting was offered to voters aged over 85 and to Divyang voters as per their wish. Out of applications received statewide, 86,462 were approved, and home voting facilities were made available until 16.11.2024. Facilities like ramps and wheelchairs are provided for Divyang voters at polling booths.

Key Highlights:

Voting time is from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Voters in queues by 6:00 PM will be allowed to vote with token numbers.
The 48-hour silence period before voting begins for all 288 Assembly constituencies, during which no campaigning is allowed.
Non-residents and political figures for campaign purposes are not allowed to stay in constituencies during this time.

The Chief Election Officer, Maharashtra, has urged all voters to come forward and vote in large numbers.

Law and Order:

Details as of 17.11.2024:

Sr. No.	Details	Number
1	Total weapon licenses issued	78,267
2	Weapons deposited	56,604
3	Weapons seized	235
4	Illegal arms seized	2,206
5	Licenses canceled, weapons seized	611
6	Weapons exempt from deposition	20,495
7	Preventive actions under BNSA	79,856

India’s Election Commission has appointed 142 General Observers, 41 Police Observers, and 72 Expenditure Observers for 288 constituencies in Maharashtra. Additionally, 146 extra counting observers will be present for vote counting.

Seizure Information:

Sr. No.	Item Seized	Quantity	Value (in Crores)
1	Cash	–	153.01
2	Liquor	68,51,364 Liters	68.63
3	Drugs	1,01,42,452 gm	72.00
4	Precious Metals	1,64,72,596 gm	282.49
5	Freebies	57,949	3.78
6	Others	13,73,775	75.60
	Total	–	655.53

Complaints and Monitoring:

8,386 complaints regarding code violations were received on the C-Vigil App, of which 8,353 were resolved.
On the NGSP portal, 13,807 complaints were received, of which 9,132 were resolved.

Media Monitoring:
A Media Certification Committee has been set up for pre-certification of political advertisements. As of 17.11.2024, 228 certificates have been issued, and 1,559 advertisements pre-certified.