No date finalised, but Election Commission's poll work gathers momentum in Bihar

NEW DELHI: Preparations for holding the Bihar assembly election are in full swing, although the Election Commission of India has yet to issue any notification regarding the polls. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first level checking of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines is going on in each district of the state, said officials.
“It is for the central election commission to take a call on the timing and date of elections. We are working as per schedule,” Ranjita, deputy chief election officer of Bihar, told ET. “We are following all the Covid-19 protocols as suggested by the central and the state government.”

To ensure social distancing, around 34,000 polling booths will be added to Bihar’s existing 72,000 polling booths. Accordingly, additional EVMS and VVPAT machines have been arranged by the state. “We have 75% more than the requirement of ballot units and 35% more than the requirement of VVPAT machines. If some problems occur during the voting, we have enough machines for replacement,” said Ranjita.

With a total of about 106,000 polling booths this time round, the state will require about 180,000 additional workforce for conducting the assembly polls. District election commissions are compiling data on availability of workforce and it shall be evaluated in the coming days, said officials.

More than three million migrant workers returned to Bihar during the lockdown imposed to curb Covid-19 pandemic. The commission is running a special campaign to add more and more people to the electoral roll. Bihar had 71,822,450 voters on February 7 this year. Around 1.24 million new voters were added between December last year and February this year. This number could go much higher after the addition of the migrant population.