Maharashtra: Maharashtra will elect a new Assembly on October 21 with 3237 candidates contesting for the 288 seats.
The election commission has set up around 97,640 polling booths in Maharashtra and added over 2000 booths for additional facilities at Thane, Pune, Nashik, and rest of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) where the number of voters too have seen a proportionate rise.
In order to ensure free and fair elections in the state, authorities have identified over 2,762 booths as 'sensitive' which they suspect may create law and order problems during the elections.
In Thane district alone,591 polling areas are declared sensitive. For smooth conduct of elections, close to 350 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), and 1.43 lakh police personnel will be deployed at different stations. Besides, three helicopters and two speedboats are also likely to be deployed.
Adding to this, 1.80 lakh ballot units, 1.30 lakh control units and 1.35 lakh VVPATs would also be used for Assembly election.
The 2019 polls will have 97,640 polling booths with 274 added in Nashik, 237 in Pune, and another 227 in Thane among other minor additions except for Sindhudurg, with an estimated 1,400 voters in a single booth.
As per ECI guidelines, each booth will have different types of facilities including toilets and emergency medical zones marked out for the convenience of voters.
Maharashtra has about 63,000 booths in urban areas while the rest are spread over rural parts. Pune has maximum 7,837 booths voting centres followed by Mumbai suburbs and Thane.
The state has a total of 8,98,39,600 voters, including 4,28,43,635 women and 4,68,75,750 men, who are expected to exercise their franchise on October 21 to elect 288 out of total 3237 candidates, including 235 women, in the fray.
A total of 1,06,76,013 are voters fall in the age group of 18-25 years.
Also, read: Campaign for Maha assembly polls ends; 3237 candidates in fray
