Bihar polls: 5.5 lakh polling personnel to be deployed across 90,712 booths

Patna, Sep 3 (IANS) Preparations are in full swing for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, with the Election Commission of India set to deploy around 5.5 lakh polling personnel across the state.

These will include presiding officers, polling officers, micro observers, and sector magistrates, who will manage voting at more than 90,712 polling stations.

The number of polling stations has gone up sharply from the last election — from about 78,000 to over 90,000 — owing to the cap of 1,200 voters per booth.

This expansion has also increased the demand for election staff.

District Magistrates are currently finalising lists of personnel, which will be digitised to enable randomised deployment.

Training will be conducted in three phases, covering EVM and VVPAT handling, electoral procedures, and documentation.

Master trainers are being prepared at the state headquarters to lead these sessions.

Each polling station will have one presiding officer and three polling officers, with additional personnel assigned as micro observers and sector magistrates.

A reserve pool of staff will also be kept ready for emergencies.

The state government workforce will be supplemented by central government employees, whose names have been sought from district offices.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission is working closely with security agencies.

Bihar Police Headquarters has already assessed the requirement of central paramilitary forces and sent a recommendation to the Home Ministry, while adequate deployment of state police is also being planned.

With the Bihar Assembly elections just weeks away, all eyes are on the Election Commission of India (ECI), which is doing a massive Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

As part of the exercise, around 65 lakh names have been deleted from the voter lists across the state.

The large-scale deletions have triggered political controversy. Opposition parties, including the Congress, RJD and CPI-ML, have questioned the functioning of the Election Commission and alleged irregularities in the process.

The Congress claimed it had submitted 89 lakh objections related to the removal of names from the electoral rolls and urged the Commission to ensure that no genuine voter is disenfranchised.

RJD and CPI-ML have also filed objections before the poll panel, demanding greater transparency in the verification and deletion process.

While the ECI has described the voter list revision as a routine exercise aimed at removing duplicates, deceased voters, and migrated persons, the opposition alleges that genuine voters may have been struck off in large numbers.

With the polls approaching, the voter list controversy is expected to be a major flashpoint between the ruling NDA and opposition INDIA bloc in Bihar.

--IANS

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