Telangana assembly elections: Two lakh less voters in 2018 than in 2014 polls, says CEC

The number of voters eligible for exercising their franchise in the Telangana assembly elections scheduled to be held on December 7 has come down by two lakh compared to the previous assembly elections held in 2014.

This was announced by Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat at a press conference on Friday. Rawat, along with other officials of the Election Commission, reviewed the poll preparedness in the state in the last two days.

In this election, as many as 2.80 crore voters could exercise their franchise, compared to 2.82 crore in 2014, as per the final electoral rolls prepared by the Telangana EC authorities, he said. Of 2.80 crore voters, approximately 1.41 crore (50.35 per cent) are men and the remaining 1.39 crore were women. The electorate also includes 10,038 service voters. “A marginal 2,885 voters belonging to the third gender have also registered as voters,” he said.

Rawat said the EC had taken note of the concerns and suggestions of various political parties and assured that an effective mechanism would be put in place to ensure smooth conduct of entire poll process in a free, fair, and inclusive manner.

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He said the EC would ensure strict compliance of model code of conduct and impartial action would be taken on every complaint received in this regard. In order to keep a close watch on the violation of model code and other violations in the assembly elections, the Election Commission has launched cVIGIL app, which will be effective from the date of notification. Through this app, any citizen will be able to file complaints regarding election code of conduct and it will be resolved in a time-bound manner.

Rawat also assured of effective action on paid news cases. The EC has directed that as per existing instructions, channels owned by political parties and candidates must also be subjected to this mechanism.