Over 12 mn eligible to vote in Delhi: EC

Over 12 million people are eligible to cast their votes in the national capital's seven Lok Sabha constituencies that will go to the polls April 10, an Election Commission official said Tuesday.

"A total of 12,760,372 Delhiites will be eligible to cast their votes for the seven Lok Sabha seats Thursday, of which 7,057,785 are males and 5,657,648 are females while 839 fall in the 'others' category," Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev told reporters.

According to the changes made in the norms of voting, any candidate who has his name in the voters list but has missed his voter identity card can carry any government issued identity proof on the day of polling.

"The documents include passport, driving licence, service identity card with photograph, Aadhar card, MNREGA card, authenticated voter slips, health insurance smartcards or any pension document with photo identity," Dev said.

Votes can be cast from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The city has over 400 sensitive and 90 hyper-sensitive booths, the official said.

"There are 11,763 polling stations in Delhi, of which 417 are sensitive and 90 are hyper-sensitive. Seventy model polling stations will be set up," he added.

Model polling stations are those which are well-equipped with better infrastructure, better crowd management, prominent signages and first aid facilities.

In the Delhi assembly polls, nine model polling stations were set up, one each in the nine districts of Delhi.

Dev said special arrangements have been made in the sensitive and hyper-sensitive booths where the balloting process would be videographed and extra Delhi Police personnel deployed.

In addition, mobile phones will not be allowed inside any of the polling stations.

He said a notification has been issued to all government and private organisations in the National Capital Territory to ensure that polling day is a paid holiday.

"A notification via newspapers has been issued. If any organisations fails to comply, strict action will be taken against them," said Dev.

Dev said that over 400 checkposts have been set up in various places in the national capital to check illegal activity that can disturb the election atmosphere.

"The poll panel will also issue election duty certificates to government officials deployed for polling duty in their own constituencies, so that they can cast their votes," he said.

A total of 14,306 Delhi Police personnel have already cast their vote through postal ballot during March 31-April 2.