Authorities set up 500 'pink' polling booths in 230 assembly constituencies in MP

A total of 500 "pink" polling booths, to be managed by all-woman staff, will be set up in Madhya Pradesh for the assembly elections that are scheduled to be held on November 28, a top officer announced Monday. 

Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao said such booths would be spread across all 230 assembly segments in the state. 

"The Election Commission has told us to set up at least one pink polling booth in every assembly constituency of the state. But, we have planned to set up more such booths in urban areas. So, about 500 pink booths would be set up across 230 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh," Rao told reporters here. 

The CEO said political parties will have to submit lists of star campaigners within seven days of issuing a poll notification, which would be released on November 2. 

As many as 15,000 booths of the total 65,341 polling stations in the state are declared "sensitive". 

Rao said a total of 1,49,151 cases have been registered under the Defacement of Property Act since the Election Commission announced the schedule of assembly polls Saturday. 

Four FIRs were registered in this regard, he said. He said over 33,000 arms were deposited (by license holders) with district administration across the state in the last two days. 

The number of registered voters in Madhya Pradesh stood at 5,03,34,260, as per the final list published on September 28, compared to 4.66 crores in the assembly elections held in 2013. 

The single-phase polling will be held on November 28. Counting of votes will be taken up on December 11.

(With inputs from agencies.)