Ranchi, May 17 (HS). Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar said that after the withdrawal of nominations, a total of 52 candidates are left in three parliamentary constituencies for the seventh phase of elections. A candidate withdrew his name from Rajmahal (reserved for Scheduled Tribe) parliamentary constituency on Friday, the last day of withdrawal of nomination. In this way, now a total of 14 candidates are left in the election fray.
Ravi Kumar said that no candidate has withdrawn the nomination from Dumka (reserved for Scheduled Tribe) parliamentary constituency. There are total 19 candidates from here. Two candidates have withdrawn their nomination from Godda parliamentary constituency. A total of 19 candidates are in the fray from here. He was addressing a regular press conference at Nirvachan Sadan, Dhurva on Friday.
Ravi Kumar said that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, a total of 240 candidates had contested on 14 seats in Jharkhand. Of these, 222 were men and 18 were women. In the year 2019, this number was 229, of which 204 were males and 25 were females. This time a maximum of 244 candidates have been nominated to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. These include 212 men, 31 women and one transgender.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that the focus of the Election Commission is on increasing the voting percentage. Various measures are being taken to create public awareness regarding this. For this, there will be emphasis on miking to make voters aware and on mobilization to take voters to the polling booth.
He said that measures have been taken to increase the speed of voting so that people do not have to wait too long to vote. Under this, three voters are being given the facility to go inside the polling station and vote at a time. At the booth where there are more than 1200 voters, an additional polling worker is being deployed so that the queue does not become long. The speed of voting should increase and people do not have to wait. Besides, the polling personnel kept in reserve will also be deployed at polling stations as per requirement.
Ravi Kumar appealed to the voters to note down the serial number of the voter list and take it with them while going to vote. With this, unnecessary time will not be wasted in matching the serial number of the voter with the voter list. If the Voter Information Slip has not reached the voter, they can also note down their serial number from the Voter Helpline App. He said that since the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, Rs 1 billion 16 crore 75 lakh has been seized in the form of illegal materials and cash.