By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 19 Nov: All is stated to be ready for polling in the Kedarnath Assembly constituency by poll, tomorrow. To conduct the polling smoothly and in a systematic and fair manner, 166 polling parties left for their destinations from Agastyamuni Kreeda Maidan today under the supervision of District Election Officer Saurabh Gahwar. Most of the parties had already reached their respective polling stations at the time of filing of this report and are making arrangements for conduct of the polling.
Prior to the departure of the polling parties, election material was made available to all polling parties.
District Magistrate, Rudraprayag, and the District Election Officer, Saurabh Gaharwar shared that postal ballot facilities have been provided for the personnel deployed in the 7-Kedarnath Vidhan Sabha constituency. He stated that, as per the guidelines issued by the Election Commission, booths for the elderly, youth, and unique booths, including Divyang booths, have been set up in the constituency. Voters of the constituency have also been urged to cast their vote in tomorrow’s polling.
Gaharwar shared that there are a total of 173 polling booths for the byelection. In all, 7 polling parties had been sent to their destinations yesterday for remote locations. The remaining polling parties have been dispatched to all the remaining polling booths today. He noted that election-related orders and materials were made available to the polling parties from 7 a.m., today, and after testing all the polling parties left for their destination as per the route plan. He also mentioned that police forces are deployed with the polling parties for security purposes, and local forest rangers have been deployed in forest areas. Special care has been taken to ensure that the polling parties do not face any problems even during their return.
SP, Rudraprayag, Akshay Prahlad Konde added that more than 1,200 policemen have been deployed for polling duty. Additionally, Home Guards and CAPF have also been deployed. Chief Development Officer Dr GS Khati stated that there are 90,875 voters in the constituency this time, including 44,919 male and 45,956 female voters. He mentioned that, today, 166 polling parties have been dispatched to their destination. The constituency has been divided into 2 zones and 27 sectors. For security purposes, regional forest officers have been sent to forest areas, and CPF teams have been deployed to sensitive booths. Additionally, arrangements have also been made for webcasting at 130 polling booths. Revenue Sub Inspectors, Gram Vikas Adhikaris, and BLOs of the areas concerned have also been deployed to ensure that voters do not face any problems in commuting.
Earlier, all the sector officers were instructed to keep all the arrangements in place by holding meetings for the necessary facilities at the polling booths. He said that all the sector and zonal sector officers have left for their respective booths for tomorrow’s voting. On this occasion, Additional District Magistrate/Deputy District Election Officer Shyam Singh Rana, Returning Officer, Ukhimath, Anil Kumar Shukla, Ashish Chandra Ghildiyal, Project Director Pradeep Kumar Pandey, Assistant District Election Officer Dheeraj Kumar, and other officers were present.
The byelection is being held on this seat after the death of BJP MLA Shaila Rani Rawat. BJP’s Asha Nautiyal and Congress candidate Manoj Rawat are among the six candidates in the fray.
