Madhya Pradesh elections to have 500 ‘pink’ polling booths managed by women officials

In an innovative move, 500 pink booths would be set up across 230 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh assembly elections to be held on November 28. These booths will be managed by all-woman staff, an official said on Monday.

Pink polling booths would be set up across all 230 assembly segments in the state, Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao told reporters in Bhopal.

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“The Election Commission has told us to set up at least one pink polling booth in every assembly constituency of the state. But, we have planned to set up more such booths in urban areas. So, about 500 pink booths would be set up across 230 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh,” Rao said.

There will be 65,341 polling stations in the state and 15,000 of them are declared “sensitive”.

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Rao also said that all political parties will have to submit lists of star campaigners within seven days of issuing a poll notification, which would be released on November 2. He said 1,49,151 cases have been registered under the Defacement of Property Act since the Election Commission announced the poll schedule on October 6. Four FIRs have been registered. Over 33,000 arms have been deposited across the state so far, he added.

Madhya Pradesh has 5,03,34,260 registered voters this year compared to 4.66 crore in the 2013 assembly elections. The final list was published on September 28.

The single-phase polling in the state will be held on November 28 and counting of votes is scheduled on December 11.