More than 1.74 eligible to cast vote for 10 LS seats in Haryana on May 12

Over 1.74 crore people in Haryana are eligible to exercise their franchise in the 10 Lok Sabha seats of the state, the election for which will be held on May 12. Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Rajiv Ranjan Sunday said the photo electoral rolls prepared on the basis of January 1, 2019, as qualifying date and finally published on January 31 along with the supplements prepared under continuous updation thereafter will be used.

There are 1,74,48,293 crore electorate in the state, as against over 1.60 crore in 2014 LS polls. Of these, 80,51,140 are females, he said. Electoral Photo ID Cards (EPICs) are issued to 100 per cent electors and coverage of photo electors are 100 per cent, Ranjan said, adding there are 19,425 polling stations in the state out of which 5,494 falls in urban and 13,931 in rural areas.

He said for the first time VVPAT machines will be used in all 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state. In the 2014 state elections, VVPATs were used in some Thanesar (Kurukshetra), Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak and Gurgaon Assembly constituencies.

Ranjan said cVIGIL mobile application has been launched under the directions of the Election Commission of India and complaints on violations of poll code can be uploaded on this app. The c-vigil mobile application gives people an opportunity to click pictures and take videos of poll code violations and send it to election officers concerned. The app can triangulate the exact location of the complaint.

"Within 100 minutes, the complainant will be given feedback on the action taken," he said. The ECI had launched the app in July. Ranjan said the poll panel has launched persons with disability (PwD) App, using which voters who have enrolled themselves as diasbled can avail pick-up and drop service.

Instructions regarding strict compliance of the Model Code of Conduct have been issued to the administrative secretaries of all departments, deputy commissioners and political parties, he told reporters here. Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and continue for over a month till May 19 across seven phases, followed by counting of votes on May 23, the Election Commission announced Sunday, kick-starting the countdown for a mega electoral battle where the BJP will pitch for a re-election of the Modi government amid the Opposition’s efforts for a united fight to unseat it.

The polling will be held on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19 for 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country in which nearly 90 crore voters would be eligible to vote.

(With inputs from agencies.)