For the first time in Rajasthan, the Election Commission will provide a facility to senior citizens who are above 80 years old and disabled persons with 40 per cent inability to move to cast their votes from home.

“There are 11.8 lakh voters above 80 years of age, and 17 lakh disabled persons in Rajasthan. There are also 18,462 voters above 100 years of age. These and those with more than 40 per cent disability will be given the facility to vote from home,” the chief election commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, told reporters, on Sunday. The CEC is in Rajasthan with his team to review the preparedness of assembly polls in the state.

“Voters availing the ‘vote from home’ facility will have to fill the form within 5 days after the election notification is issued. After this, the Election Commission will make arrangements to cast the vote from their home itself,” he added.

The EC has taken a new move to prevent the entry of criminals in the poll process, under which the political parties would have to give an explanation in the newspaper as to why the ticket to a person with a criminal background was allotted, the CEC said.

When asked about the announcement date of the election in the state, Kumar said the media would know it first.

Rajasthan has 200 assembly constituencies. There would be 5.25 crore voters, including 21.9 lakh new young voters (18-19 years) and 18,462 voters above the age of 100 years. The voting for the 200 seats will be held at 51,756 polling stations, including 10,415 urban and 41,341 rural stations.

The CEC said, “Strict vigilance on the international border (with Pakistan) and the interstate borders would be extended to contain flow of illegal cash, drug, and liquor. For this, 25 police check posts, 42 of the excise department, and 64 of forest department would be set up.”

The movement of bank vehicles carrying cash to replenish ATMs would not ply between 5am and 10pm on the polling day, he said, adding the RBI and banks would be notified to implement it, and, if required, they would have to show the details of money loaded and other details of the vehicle.

The district collectors would have to establish a control room to contain and monitor fake news and fake narratives related to the election, he underlined.

On a question of mandatory voting, CEC denied there was any such idea under the EC’s consideration. Similarly, with the EVM- and VVPAT-related complaints, he said, there was no such issue after the Supreme Court’s several decisions on several PILs. The recent assembly poll results in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka have shown the “genuineness” of these machines.

The CEC was accompanied by two ECs – Arun Goyal and Anup Chand Pandey, and the Rajasthan chief election officer, Praveen Gupta. The team included the deputy election commissioner, Manoj Kumar Sahu among others.