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ELLENABAD BYPOLL: EC INCREASES EXPENDITURE LIMIT, NUMBER OF POLLING BOOTHS

Earlier, the contesting candidates were allowed to spend an amount of Rs 28 lakh in the canvassing and the limit has now been extended to Rs 30.80 lakh.

The Ellenabad by-poll, which is slated to on October 30, seems to be turning into a multi-cornered battle as all factions are not leaving no stone turned to make their contestants win the election. In continuation to this, the state election commission has made few changes in the guidelines as compared to previous elections most importantly, increasing the expenditure limit for the contestants emerges as one of the huge changes.

Earlier, the contesting candidates were allowed to spend an amount of Rs 28 lakh in the canvassing and the limit has now been extended to 30.80 lakh. Which is 2.80 lakh higher and constitutes a hike of more than 10 percent. Any candidate has to spend a lot of money during the canvassing including conduct of rallies, public programmes, arrangements of vehicles, printing material and so on.

Besides this, the commission has come up with a change in terms of setting up polling booths. Prior to this upcoming by poll, as many as 190 polling booths were set up in assembly elections on seats held in 2019 but now the concerned body has decided to set up 211 polling booths, an addition of 21 booths as compared to previous elections.

Out of these, 11 booths are put up under auxiliary category which includes those booths with 1200 or more votes. Apart from the mentioned above, the commission also has come up with an amendment in terms of changing the time of canvassing. Prior to this, the contestants were allowed to canvas 48 hours ahead of the polling. Abiding by the new amendment and the guidelines, the ongoing campaigning in assembly would come to an end 48 hours prior to the polling date.

It is pertinent to mention that the commission has already issued orders pertaining to the broadcast or publication of any kind of survey or the opinion polls. Under section 126 of Public Representation Act, 1951, there would be a ban on opinion polls and surveys ahead of the poll that is to take place on October 30 by 7 AM.

While reacting to the forthcoming by-election, Hema Sharma, Chief Electoral of the commission said, “We are committed to ensure the smooth and fair conduct of the election. Anyone found breaching the norms will be subject to stern action involving imprisonment or penalty or both at the same time.”

In continuation to this, it is worth mentioning that as many as 186103 voters do exist on the seat and out of these male and female voters are 99138 and 86984 respectively while one voter hails form transgender category.

Among these, there are 313 Service Voters and the voters falling in this category are the army persons deployed in other states and unable to come for voting. So, in view of the nature of their job and posting, they are allowed to cast their vote by the post. With as many as 368 voters belong to the Person with Disability (PwD) category, the commission is required to make additional arrangements to ensure they can vote without facing any problem.

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