359 polling stations critical: Election Commission

Mumbai: The state branch of the Election Commission of India (ECI) has identified 359 polling stations as critical in the second phase of the election. A senior official of the ECI said that these polling stations will be under surveillance of CCTV and 518 micro-observers. In addition to this, the live web cast of these polling stations will be carried out.

There are 20,716 polling booths in 10 constituencies. Around 8,546,000 voters will exercise their franchise in 10 constituencies.

An official of the state branch of the ECI said that there is one critical polling booth in Buldh-ana, 17 in Akola, 38 in Amravati, 26 in Hingoli, 40 in Nanded, 54 in Parbhani, 37 in Beed, 48 in Osmanabad, 34 in Latur, and 64 in Solapur. Thus, there are 359 “critical” polling stations.

The official said that a total of 179 candidates are in the fray in 10 seats and a total of 20,716 polling booths will be used in the second phase. Out of these polling stations, there will be a live webcast of 2,100 polling booths.

In the second phase,  there are a maximum of 36 candidates in the Beed LS constituency and a minimum 10 candidates in the Latur Lok Sabha constituency.

He also said that there are 12 candidates in Buldhana, 11 in Akola, 24 in Amravati, 28 in Hingoli, 14 in Nanded, 17 in Parbhani, 14 in Osman-abad and 13 candidates in Solapur Lok Sabha constituency.A total of 62,700 electronic voting mach-ines  and around 27,000 VVPAT machines are in place for  second phase.

The state branch of the ECI had made arrangements for drinking water and shade to protect from the Sun and Sakhi polling booths have been set up in each Assembly constituency as per ECI guidelines.