LS polls: City to have 17 only women-staffed booths; 10 in East Delhi

As many as 17 booths will be set up with an all-woman staff for the Lok Sabha elections in the national capital, of which 10 would be set up in East Delhi constituency, a top poll official said Monday.

Elections in Delhi would be held on May 12 and over 1.43 crore voters in Delhi are on the electoral roll -- 78,73,022 male and 64,42,762 female.

"We will be setting up 17 special booths across the seven parliamentary constituencies, staffed only by women, from a presiding officer to other staff. East Delhi constituency will have the maximum 10 such booths," Delhi CEO Ranbir Singh said.

It was planned that each of the seven Lok Sabha constituencies have one such booth at least.

"Five other constituencies will have one only women-staffed booth each, while one constituency will have two such booths," he said.

A total of 13,819 polling stations will be established at 2,696 locations in Delhi, with a model polling station in each of the 70 assembly constituencies.

The establishment of only women-staffed booths would be a first for the city during elections. Such booths have been used in other elections, such as the Karnataka polls last year.

"The purpose of this exercise to showcase their abilities and engender a sense of woman empowerment," he said.

These special booths will have an all-women staff, including presiding officers, polling officers and micro observers.

Such booths are aimed at empowering women and increasing their participation in the electoral process, he said.

One polling booth (in north-east district) will be completely staffed by persons with disabilities, while the Leprosy Home Complex at Tahirpur in north-east district will have a booth for persons with disabilities only, the Delhi CEO Office had earlier said.

Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, Singh said, voters can also get information regarding a polling station by texting voter id in a specific format (available with the CEO office) to a designated number.

On the EVMs to be used, he said, in six of the seven constituencies, each polling stations would have one control unit, two ballot units and a VVPAT, while in North West constituency, there would be just a single ballot unit along with a control unit and a VVPAT as there are only 11 candidates for that seat.