A total of 18.34 crore electors including service voters will take part in the upcoming Assembly elections in Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission of India (ECI) informed on Saturday.
While addressing a press conference here Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra said, "A total of 18.34 crore electors including service voters will take part in this election out of which 8.55 crore are women electors."
"24.9 lakh first-time electors are registered in the five poll-bound states," Chandra said.
"ECI has mandated that at least one polling station managed exclusively by women shall be set up in every Assembly constituency. Our officers have identified much more than that. There are 690 Assembly seats but we are setting up 1620 such polling booths," the CEC said.
Amid the spike in COVID-19 cases, the ECI has informed that senior citizens above 80 years of age, persons with disabilities and COVID-19 patients can vote by postal ballots.
Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh are slated to go for Assembly elections this year. 403 Assembly seats are slated to go to polls in Uttar Pradesh, 70 seats are up for grabs in Uttarakhand, 117 seats in Punjab, 40 seats in Goa and 60 seats in Manipur.
Out of these 5 poll-bound states, the BJP is in power in 4 states including Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Leaders from all the political parties are campaigning aggressively for months to register their win in the upcoming polls.
( With inputs from ANI )
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