"More than 2.43 crore voters to exercise their franchise in upcoming LS polls": Assam Chief Electoral Officer

GUWAHATI: Anurag Goel, Chief Electoral Officer in Assam, has said that more than 2.43 crore voters in the state will exercise their franchise in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, which will be held in three phases in the state on April 19, April 26 and May 7.

The CEO told ANI that 60 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have already arrived in the state and additional forces will arrive.

"We are fully prepared to conduct the election in a free, fair and transparent manner. This time, Assam has more than 2.43 crore voters spread over 28,650 polling stations. We have taken a large number of steps.

CAPF will be deployed in each polling station, and we will try to cover 55 per cent of polling stations with webcasting. We will deploy micro-observers from central PSUs. There will also be additional videography. We have already activated video surveillance teams and flying squad teams," Anurag Goel said.

He also mentioned that the actual companies for poll duty will be arriving 7-8 days before the poll date.

"There are three phases of polls in Assam. The 60 companies have been deployed across the state for area dominance. GPS will be installed in the vehicles that will carry the EVMs," he said.

The Chief Electoral Officer in Assam said that there will be 1,409 women-managed polling stations, 262 model polling stations and 15,777 polling stations where webcasting will be held.

"Out of 2.43 crore voters, there are 414 transgender, 1.217 crore male, 1.212 crore female, and 4854 above 100 years old voters in the state," he said.

Meanwhile, of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the electorally significant Northeast state, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Dhubri will be in focus going into the Lok Sabha elections from April 19.