Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer K. Vijayanand has called upon the electorate in the Tirupati (SC) Lok Sabha constituency to exercise their franchise without any fear from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on April 17.
Addressing the media along with additional DGP (law and order) Ravi Shankar Ayyanar at the Secretariat on Thursday, Mr. Vijayanand said that arrangements were been to ensure a peaceful byelection.
Stating that 28 candidates were in the fray, he said there were 17,11,195 voters in the constituency spread over Chittoor and Nellore districts. In all, 2,470 polling stations were set up, he added.
COVID norms
Keeping in view the threat of COVID-19, one polling station was arranged for every 1,000 voters against 1,500 previously.
Mr. Vijayanand said elaborate arrangements were made in Tirupati, Srikalahasti and Satyavedu Assembly segments in Chittoor district and Gudur, Sarvepalli, Sullurpeta and Venkatagiri in Nellore district.
Ward and village volunteers were being kept out of the election duty as per the instructions from the Election Commission of India (ECI). The volunteers were also prohibited from acting as polling agents for the candidates, he said.
Postal ballot
Mr. Vijayanand said there were 24,698 differently-abled voters, 22,743 voters aged above 80 (postal ballot facility has been provided to them and papers were already collected from them at their homes by mobile teams), 497 service voters and 216 third gender voters.
As far as security is concerned, he said 23 companies of central security forces had been deployed and 877 polling stations were identified as sensitive. Thirty-seven flying squads would keep a watch on the polling.
The ECI deputed Dinesh Patel, Rajeev Kumar and Anand Kumar as the general, police and expenditure observers respectively. Fifty-two checkposts were set up at the constituency borders. In the run-up to the election, cash, liquor and other material valued at ₹4.73 crore were seized.
