The Election Commission will decide on its visit to Bihar, where Assembly elections are to be completed before November 29, within two or three days, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said on Monday.
Mr. Arora’s was speaking at a webinar for the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) members on conducting elections during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Arora said elections in India posed formidable challenges due to the large electorate, the geographical and linguistic diversity and varying climatic conditions. In Bihar, he said the number of voters was 72.9 million. He said the number of voters per polling station for the Bihar elections was reduced from 1,500 to 1,000 in order to maintain social distancing, leading to a 40% increase in the number of polling stations. He said these changes had significant logistics and manpower implications.
