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More than 1.52 lakh new voters have been registered in eight out of total 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra in the latest round of electoral roll revision, in which the number of new women voters was more than their male counterparts, officials said.
In this special drive conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI), as many as 82,658 new female voters were registered as against the 69,652 new male voters in these eight constituencies - Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim, Hingoli, Nanded, and Parbhani.
However, the total number of female voters across these eight segments is way below the count of male voters.
There are 53,99,057 female voters as against the 77,21,374 male voters. There are 432 voters registered as transgenders, an official statement issued by the chief electoral office of Maharashtra. These eight constituencies will go to polls in the second phase on May 7.
With the addition of voters during the special drive of the ECI conducted between January 23 and April 4, the number of electorate rose by 1,52,330. This took the number of voters in these eight seats to 1,49,25,912.
"Earlier, the ECI used to close its voter registration in January, while the actual campaign commences once the candidates are finalised. The candidates and their teams make efforts like de-cluttering the voters' list, contacting potential voters, among others," an official from the chief electoral office said.
A political party functionary working for a Lok Sabha poll candidate said, "With the new provision of the ECI to allow registration of voters beyond January 25, the potential candidates and their teams took extra efforts to complete the registration process of the potential voters, who are otherwise averse to visit the government office and get their names registered."
The official further said, this permission (for voter registration) turned out to be a win-win situation for voters as well as for candidates.
"The candidates can take credit for helping potential voters in getting their names enrolled in the voters' list and also expect his or her vote for themselves. So in addition to the ECI's routine exercise, such a move also increases the enrolment of voters," the official added.
