17.28 lakh voters to exercise franchise in Baramulla’s 2103 polling stations

Baramulla, Apr 26: The Returning Officer (RO) for Baramulla parliamentary constituency Friday issued the gazette notification for the Lok Sabha polls for the constituency.

Addressing media persons, RO Baramulla parliamentary constituency, Minga Sherpa said post issuance of the gazette notification, Form (1) has been issued following which the candidates would be invited to file their nominations for Lok Sabha polls.

Briefing about the Baramulla parliamentary segment, Sherpa said that post delimitation exercise, the parliamentary constituency comprises four districts of which one falls partly in Baramulla.

“Apart from Baramulla, Kupwara, and Bandipora districts, two assembly segments - Budgam and Beerwah also fall in the Baramulla parliamentary constituency,” he said.

Sherpa said that the Baramulla parliamentary constituency has 17,28,501 electors, as per the special summary.

“This parliamentary constituency has 2103 polling stations across the four districts of which 905 polling stations fall in Baramulla district and all of them have been declared critical polling stations,” he said.

Sherpa said that as per the Election Commission of India (ECI) guidelines, the timing for filing nomination papers for the candidates would be from 11 am to 3 pm.

“The nomination process started Friday but Saturday and Sunday will be holidays, and filing of nominations will resume from Monday,” he said.

Sherpa said that the last day for filing nominations has been fixed as May 3 and the scrutiny of nomination papers would be done on May 4.

“The last day for withdrawal of nominations is May 6,” he said. “The date of polling will be May 20.”

Meanwhile, RO Baramulla said that all facilities had been assured as per the ECI regulations.

“Some polling stations in our constituency have been declared as model polling stations. There are 18 assembly segments in this parliamentary segment and our concerned AROs are actively visiting the areas and polling stations,” Sherpa said.

He said that compared to the last election which witnessed only 34 percent voting, they expect an increase in polling in Lok Sabha elections.

About the terrain challenges, Sherpa said special arrangements had been made in areas like Gurez and Kupwara with helicopter facilities for polling parties in case of cutoffs in Razdan Top and Sadna Top areas.

He said that all the intending candidates should come between 11 am and 3 pm, as mandated by the ECI.

“This year, we have a new facility ‘Swedha App’, which is an online facility for the candidates,” Sherpa said.

“Candidates wishing to contest should bring Form 2(A) and Affidavit-26, open a bank account, and provide details of election expenses. All sets of papers should be carried along. The candidates should check all the latest guidelines to avoid rejection of their forms,” he said.

Sherpa said that for the first time, ECI has introduced home voting facilities for Absentee Voters Senior Citizens (AVSC) and Absentee Voters with Physical Disability (AVPD), which will be provided to people in these two categories in Baramulla parliament constituency as well.

“Absentee voters above 85 years of age can use Form 12(D) provided by the BLO to cast their vote at home. These forms should be sent to the RO’s office by May 1 and teams will be constituted accordingly. Absentee voters with a 40 percent physical disability can also cast their vote from home. We will facilitate them accordingly,” he said.