Around 60 lakh voters to cast franchise in Thane

Over 59 lakh voters will seal the fate of 238 candidates in Thane district tomorrow in the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections which is set to witness a five-way fight.
Addressing a press conference, Thane district collector and district election officer P Velrasu said that a the total 59.90 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in Thane tomorrow, including 26.98 lakh women voters.
A total of 238 candidates, including those of Shiv Sena, BJP, Congress, NCP and MNS, will fight to enter the assembly from 18 constituencies.
The district has a total of 6,145 polling booths, of which 764 are classified as critical, Velrasu said, adding, specified measures have been taken at the critical booths, including deputing micro observers and videographers.

A total of 35,443 people have been deployed for the election duty, including 13,662 policemen, 1,023 home guards, 12 teams of CRPF, and five teams of SRPF.
A total of 940 preventive detentions have been made in the district and nearly Rs 1 crore cash was seized in different operations in last one month, he said.

At least 75 per cent voters possess voter ID card, but in case where a voter do not have ID card but has name listed on the electoral roll, can cast their vote by producing any of the 11 photo-id proof, specified by the Election Commission.

The number of voters this year has increased by nearly 3 lakh voters against the 2009 polls, the official said.
A total of 35 cases of violation of model code of conduct has been registered with the police in Thane, he said.