Polling in Bihar will be held in six phases so that central paramilitary forces could be made available in adequate numbers particularly in the Naxal-hit areas, Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ajay V Nayak said today.
"The number of phases had to be increased to six in Bihar because we do not have adequate Central Paramilitary Forces as demanded and this could be made available from other areas for smooth conduct of elections particularly in the Maoists infested areas," Nayak told reporters.
"Naxal-affected areas of Bihar contiguous to Jharkhand will have polls together on April 10 to facilitate better security availability," he said explaining the reasons for expanding polling to six days in Bihar.
Bihar will witness polling in six-phases on April 10, 17, 24, 30, May 7 and May 12. Six to seven Lok Sabha constituencies out of a total of 40 seats will go to polls in each phase.
Over 6.21 crore voters will get a chance to exercise their franchise at 59,807 polling stations across the state. Of them 3.31 crore are males while 2.9 crore females. Around 19 lakh new voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years have been added to the electoral rolls, he said.
A special camp shall be organised at all polling stations in the state on March 9 for voters to check their names in the electoral roll.
"If anyone has been left out or whose name has wrongly been deleted, he can immediately fill application for inclusion of name in form 6 and hand it over to the Block Level Officer (BLO)," Nayak said.
Voters should have Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and name in photo electoral roll to exercise their franchise, he added.
