Lok Sabha polls: Over 100 all-women booths in Guwahati seat

TEZPUR, Mar 17 : The Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency will have more than 100 all-women polling stations during the upcoming general elections, a senior official said on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference, Guwahati’s Returning Officer Sumit Sattawan said the constituency has more women voters than men, and the figure is likely to go up in the coming days.

The Guwahati constituency, which will vote in the third phase on May 7, has 2,181 polling booths, spread across Kamrup Metropolitan, Kamrup and Goalpara districts.

“Out of them, we will have 102 all-women polling stations. All the staff of these booths will be women. Besides, we will also have 15 model polling stations in our constituency,” Sattawan said.

In the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat, there are 10 assembly constituencies — five in Kamrup Metropolitan, three in Kamrup and two in Goalpara, he said.

“We have 20,19,444 voters — 9,93,268 men, 10,26,118 women and 58 third gender. These figures are likely to go up after taking into account the new voter applications,” he added.

Sattawan said that around 9,000 civil servants will be engaged during the polling exercise, besides a considerable number of security personnel.

“We will also have 25 flying squads, 15 static surveillance teams and 15 video surveillance teams for enforcing the model code of conduct in letter and spirit,” said Sattawan, the District Commissioner of Kamrup Metropolitan.

Addressing a press conference in Tezpur, Sonitpur’s Returning Officer Deba Kumar Mishra said a total of 150 polling booths will be managed by only women.

“We will have a total of 1,878 polling stations across the constituency. In these booths, 16,25,364 people will exercise their franchise. There are 4,73,037 men and 4,78,248 women voters in the Sonitpur constituency,” he said. (PTI )