State election authorities seek 35,000 additional ballot units

Hyderabad: Even as the State gears up for the Lok Sabha polls, the State election authorities, with over 1 lakh ballot units, have sought 35,000 additional units as reserves from the Central Election Commission. When compared with 2019, the number of contestants on average has almost doubled in all constituencies. The total number of voters is 3,32,32,318 this time.

This time, a total of 525 candidates are in the poll fray, compared to 2019, which had a peculiar case for Nizamabad, where a total of 185 candidates, including 170 protesting farmers, were in the poll fray out of a total of 443 candidates. “As the existing provision can accommodate only 16 including NOTA, we have to use more than one ballot unit in each of the constituencies. Except for Adilabad, all other constituencies have this requirement. We have 1,05,000 ballots, and as a reserve, we have requested another 35,000,” informed Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj while addressing a press conference. The CEO informed that commissioning of EVMs will begin on May 3 and 4, after randomisation and the process will be completed by May 6. Over the distribution of voter information slips, he urged the political parties to engage the Booth Level Agents (BLAs) for smooth distribution of the slips. Citing the example of Hyderabad, he pointed out that out of 3,986 polling stations, even the major political parties did not even engage BLAs in half of them.

Vikas Raj informed that a total of 155 companies of the Central Forces will be deployed during the polls in Telangana. Apart from 60,000 police personnel, including those from the Forest and other departments, some 20,000 from other States are being deployed as part of the bilateral agreement.

Among the total of 35,809 polling stations, Malkajgiri with 3,226 has the highest and Mahbubabad with 1,689 has the lowest. So far, a total of 7,185 cases have been registered, and Rs 212 crore worth of seizures have been reported.