Estimated 7 cr voters to cast their franchise in Bihar poll

An estimated seven crore voters will cast their franchise in the five-phase Bihar Assembly poll, the schedule for which was announced today by the Election Commission of India, a poll panel official said.
"The number of electors is likely to go up significantly and touch about seven crore as the continuous updation of process of prospective voters is underway and this exercise will go on till about 10 days before the actual date of voting," Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer Ajay V Naik told reporters here.
He said that his expectation about the rise in number of voters by the time election process starts on October 12 was based on the fact that there was a 4.84 per cent growth in the figure during special summary revision in January, and another 2.58 per cent growth during another special summary revision in July.

Indicating that the youths will play a decisive role in the final outcome of the Assembly polls, Naik said that as many as 2.04 crore voters belonged to the age group of 18 to 29 years among the existing number of voters at 6.68 crore at present.
The CEO said that EPIC coverage in the poll-bound state stood at 100 per cent, while the photo coverage was a just a shade below at 99.98 per cent.
The Web, SMS and Android-based apps facility has been enabled for the voters to search their name in the electoral roll and find out the polling stations where they will cast their votes, Naik said.

With regard to security and other arrangements, he said that the Central Police Forces would be deployed at all polling stations even as preventive actions related to maintenance of law and order was being carried out in full swing to ensure a free, fair and peaceful Bihar Assembly polls.
Fresh EVM machines will be used in the elections for which the First Level Checking has already been completed.
The EVMs provided by BEL will be used in 30 districts and voting machines by ECIL will be given to the remaining districts, the CEO said, adding that the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) will be used in 36 Assembly constituencies spread over 34 districts, except Sheohar, Arwal, Lakhisarai and Sheikhpura.