How pollsters are trying to boost voter turnout in politically crucial UP

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Lucknow:

The Election Commission of India has set up more than 200 polling booths in housing societies in urban areas of Uttar Pradesh to boost voter turnout in the politically crucial state.

In an interview with Press Trust of India (PTI), the state’s chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa said pollsters were targeting urban areas where voter turnout has been low in the past and said Uttar Pradesh would Ranked first in terms of turnout. .

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the turnout rate in Uttar Pradesh was tepid at 59.11%.

“We have taken a number of important steps to ensure that barriers to voting are removed. We ensure that polling stations are located within a two-kilometre radius of every elector.

“Also in urban areas, we have taken a new initiative to set up polling stations in gated communities and multi-storey housing communities where voter turnout has been low in the past,” Linwa told PTI.

The senior official said that more than 200 polling stations have been set up across the state, with Noida taking the lead.

“Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of such polling stations, with Noida leading the way. Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly and even Mathura will have such polling stations,” Linwa said.

Asked whether Uttar Pradesh’s poll percentage would cross 60 per cent this time, the CEO said: “I believe Uttar Pradesh voters will come first and pass with flying colours.” Rinwa stressed that SVEEP (System Voters Education and electoral participation) activities also continue in the state.

SVEEP is the Electoral Commission’s flagship program for voter education, spreading voter awareness and improving voter literacy.

On the issue of low voter turnout in 2019, Rinwa said: “To find out the reasons, we took a bottom-up approach for each parliamentary constituency.

“We have asked the ERO (Electoral Registration Officer) and DM (District Magistrate) to prepare a Turnout Implementation Plan (TIP) – an initiative of the ECI – to identify the reasons for low turnout in each assembly constituency and polling station which This is the first time for the country,” Linwa said.

Linwa said that this time, more than 153 million people in Uttar Pradesh will exercise their franchise and voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm – except for two assembly constituencies in Sonbhadra district as the area was earlier affected The influence of left-wing extremism.

Sonbhadra borders Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

“Keeping this in mind, we have proposed to the ECI that the polling timings be scheduled from 7 am to 4 pm. The ECI is yet to approve the timing as it will be conducted in a phased manner,” he said.

The Lok Sabha seat of Robertsganj (SC) Sonbhadra will go to polls in the seventh phase on June 1.

Asked about the challenges of implementing “One Nation, One Election” in a state like Uttar Pradesh, Rinwa said: “If we have the necessary infrastructure, mainly a sufficient number of EVMs, then there will not be any problem.” “We have more than 1.62 lakh polling stations… If ‘one nation, one vote’ is implemented, at least 3.24 lakh EVMs will be needed, one for LS polls and one for assembly polls,” he added.

The official further said that the weather will be very hot in April and May, which may deter voters from going out to cast their votes.

“Keeping this in mind, we have asked our DEOs (District Election Officers) to ensure that clean drinking water is available at polling stations and that shade is provided to voters lining up.

“We are also asking for some furniture for the elderly, pregnant women and disabled voters,” Linwa said.

Linwa said people are advised to use early morning voting to avoid the afternoon sun.

Regarding the steps taken by the ECI to ensure that poll workers maintain physical and fitness conditions during the elections, the UP CEO said, “We will provide medical kits to all polling teams along with a list of dos and don’ts. “. On the challenges faced by pollsters, the official said, “In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, there are some non-existent voters in the electoral lists. This happens because people did not submit Form 7 to remove their names”. “In the recent special summary revision, we took a series of steps to ensure our electorate rolls are clean,” he added.

Form 7 must be submitted if the voter dies, transfers to a different constituency, has a duplicate voter status, etc. PTI NAV UP gates polling stations in communities to boost voter turnout:

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)