10 lakh voters added last week, says Election Commission

The Election Commission (EC) Thursday said as many as 10 lakh voters were added to the electoral rolls across the country last week, including four lakh first timers.

It also said that "all preparations" are being made for a smooth conduct of the first and second phases of the Lok Sabha polls, in which over 2,900 candidates are in the fray.

"We have added 10 lakh voters to the list, including four lakh new voters who are in the age group of 18-19," Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena told reporters here.

When the EC announced the polls on March 10, it had said that there are a total of about 90 crore voters in the country.

He added that preparations for conducting polls in the first two phases on April 11 and 18 are in full swing and all facilities would be provided to all categories of voters.

For the first phase, he said, there are a total of 1,280 candidates in the fray, 1,188 men and 92 women, while for the second phase (April 18), there are 1,674 candidates, 1,549 male and 125 female.

The number of candidates trying their luck in these two phases is 2,954. Saxena said there were a total of 61 lakh voters in the "persons with disabilities" category.

He added that the 'cVigil' app has been a "big hit" and the commission has received 40,116 complaints through it till now. The cVIGIL mobile application was launched by the Election Commission last year and complaints on violations of poll code can be uploaded on it.

Almost 99 per cent or 39,900 complaints have been disposed of and 68 per cent of these were found to be correct, Saxena said. The maximum complaints on this app have come from Kerala, he added.