Age no bar for electors in Haryana

Age is just a number and if you have to exercise your franchise even at the ripe age of 100 plus, learn a few things from the determined lot of electors in Haryana.

As the state readies itself for two big elections this year - the Lok Sabha polls in April-May and the state assembly elections likely in October, voters who are aged 100 and more too are ready to make their choice.

"In the 90 Assembly constituencies of Haryana, there are 5,910 voters who are 100 years old or more. It is a matter of pride for Haryana that elderly voters of this age are registered in the voters' list," Haryana Joint Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Inderjeet said here.

The latest voters' lists published by the State Election Department (SEC) on January 31 has revealed that these aged voters too are part of the electoral process in the state which has a population of nearly 2.54 crore (as per 2011 Census).

"Most elderly voters (100 plus) are in the rural areas and it is a good thing that they have registered themselves," an SEC official told IANS.

According to this list, the maximum number of 553 voters who are of 100 years of age or above are in Karnal, the constituency of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

The lowest number, 111, are in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh.

"There are 89,711 voters in the 90-99 age group. The maximum number of 7,946 are in Bhiwani while the lowest number of 1,436 are in Panchkula. The voters who are still left out can fill Form No. 6 online on the website to get their votes registered," the joint CEO said.

Haryana has over 1.75 eligible voters -- around 94 lakh males and around 81 lakh women.

Compared to 1962, when the percentage of women polling was 47.6 per cent, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw the poll percentage increase to 69.68.

During the special brief revision of voter lists recently, 368,494 new voters were added.

"The names of 85,613 ineligible voters have been removed from the voters' list and the details of 60,995 have been corrected. If the name of any citizen is not on the voters' list, then one can get himself or herself registered and also get their personal details corrected," Inderjeet said.

He said that a toll free number - 1800-336-1950 <tel:1800-336-1950> has been activated for providing state level information for the convenience of voters of the state. Voters can get information about their form status and polling station by calling on voter's helpline toll free number 1950 in their district or by sending an SMS.

Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha seats. Of these, two seats (Ambala and Sirsa) are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is ruling Haryana since October 2014, won seven Lok Sabha seats in 2014. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) won two seats while the Congress got one seat.

--IANS

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