Want election through ballot paper: Kharge
Addressing the gathering at Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan function , the Congress chief said, “We don’t want elections through EVMs. We want elections through ballot paper.”
The stage is ready for the seventh phase of the general election tomorrow.
The stage is ready for the seventh phase of the general election tomorrow.
The election will start at 7 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Election will be held in nine seats tomorrow. They are Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jadavpur, Joynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Kolkata South and Kolkata North.
A total of 967 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) along with 33,292 state police personnel would be on duty tomorrow.
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The first phase of the election was held on 19 April. The other days of election were 26 April, 7 May,13 May, 20 May and 25 May.
All the political parties had organized public meetings and roadshows. Prime minister Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee were the key campaigners. Trinamul Congress and BJP had engaged star campaigners to canvas for their party colleagues.
Election Commission of India (ECI) has taken elaborate measures to ensure a free and fair election in the last phase tomorrow.
About 1,63,40.345 voters will exercise their franchise at 17,470 polling stations in the state tomorrow.
The Election Commission today asked the presiding officers at every polling station to do webcasting, and if any glitch is detected, then polling in that booth will be suspended till it is put back in service.
Moreover, the video camera put up at every polling station should be working uninterruptedly. If it is found to be malfunctioning, the concerned presiding officer would be held up. A departmental proceeding would also follow in that case.
The poll panel in a directive also made it clear that teachers of any government and government-aided schools, permanent or contractual, are strictly barred from being counting agents of any candidates.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has raised the number of Quick Response Team (QRT) to a total of 1,958 in the nine LS constituencies going to polls tomorrow.
Of which, 600 QRT have been deployed alone in the city and close surveillance would be maintained from the rooftop of at least 72 high rises by the central force and the city police.
Keeping an eye on the alleged volatility of the situation at Basirhat police district, particularly at Sandeshkhali, Election commission has provided more thrust on the security arrangement in both the Basirhat district and Baruipur district as well.
While at Basirhat district, the poll panel had identified 58.23 per cent of the total of 1,882 polling stations “critical or sensitive”.
At Basirhat only, about 116 companies of central forces of the total 967 companies have been deployed, while at Baruipur district police 140 companies along with 4,368 state police have been deployed.
The election commission has also sent six senior ranking police officers at Basirhat to oversee the security on the polling day.
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