Polling booths in rural Maha outnumber those in urban parts

The number of polling booths located in rural parts of Maharashtra in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is nearly double than those in urban areas.

There are over 95,000 polling booths across the state, of which 61,000 are located in rural parts, while over 34,000 are in urban areas.

Pune district accounts for the maximum number of 7,600 voting centres, followed by Mumbai suburbs and Thane, an official statement said.

"Mumbai suburbs tops the list in terms of maximum number of polling booths in urban parts, while Pune has more polling booths in rural areas," it said.

Over 1,300 polling centres are located in forest and semi-forest areas and more than 90,000 polling centres are housed in schools, colleges and government buildings.

 

Polling centre is an inseparable part of the polling process. They play an important role in facilitating voters to exercise their franchise.

Majority of these centres are located in schools, colleges and government buildings, although at times temporary polling centres are also set up. For the Lok Sabha elections 1,100 such temporary polling centres are set up.

The Chief Election Commission has given directives to provide various necessary facilities at the polling centres.

These facilities are provided at urban and rural polling centres without any difference.

However, changes are made according to the local situations with the approval of the Election Commission.

For the Lok Sabha elections, there are 95,473 polling centres set up in the state. Their number may increase.

The district-wise number of polling centres in rural and urban areas (total number is given in bracket):

Nandurbar 1,100, 190 (1290); Dhule- 1,300, 300 (1600); Jalgaon- 3,000, 500 (3,500); Buldhana- 1,800, 400 (2,200); Akola- 1,100, 500 (1,600); Washim- 900, 80 (980); Amravati- 1,900, 617 (2,517); Wardha- 1,076, 238 (1,314); Nagpur- 2,100, 2,200 (4,300); Bhandara- 1,165, 40 (1,205); Gondia- 1,153, 1,128 (1,281); Gadchiroli- 929, 01 (930); Chandrapur- 1,170, 890 (2,070); Yavatmal- 2,280, 200 (2,480); Nanded- 2,495, 460 (2,955); Hingoli- 866, 135 (1,001); Parbhani- 1,040, 450 (1,490); Jalna- 1,390, 240 (1,630); Aurangabad- 1,950, 1,000 (2,950); Nasik- 2,980, 1,450 (4,440); Thane- 1,273, 5,215 (7,666); Mumbai Suburb- 286, 7,011 (7,297); Mumbai City- 0, 2,592 (2,592); Raigad- 2,470, 220 (2,690); Pune 3,287, 4,379 (7,666); Ahmednagar- 2,922, 800 (3,722); Beed- 1,785, 526 (2,311); Latur- 1,925, 70 (1,995); Usmanabad- 1,322, 160 (1,482); Solapur- 2,580, 890 (3,470); Satara- 2,738, 230 (2,968); Ratnagiri- 1,673, 26 (1,699); Sindhudurg- 890, 21 (911); Kolhapur- 2,490, 820 (3,310); Sangli- 1,890, 500 (2,390); Palghar- 1,800, 310 (2,110).

Once the auxiliary polling centres are fixed, the total number of polling centres may increase, the statement said.