Bihar Election 2020: Electoral officers all set to conduct Nov 3 polls
A day after campaigning for the second phase of the Bihar Assembly elections came to an end, polling and presiding officers left dispatch centres across the eastern state on Monday morning to conduct the polling process on November 3 in 94 seats.
The electoral officers were headed to their respective booths along with the EVMs, VVPATs and other machinery to conduct the election process after they were briefed about the poll process and Covid-19 norms.
Polling in 94 Assembly segments in 17 districts will be held from 7 am till 6 pm. The polling in some sensitive constituencies will end at 4 pm as per the Election Commission (EC) directions.
The EC has set up 94 dispatch centres in 17 districts, where Electronic Voting Machines, Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trails and other poll devices were kept under the close watch of paramilitary forces.
The EC had set up nine dispatch centres in Patna, 10 in Saran, 8 in Siwan, 7 in Nalanda, 5 each in Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, and Muzaffarpur, 6 each in East and West Champaran, 7 in Begusarai, and 4 each in Khagaria and Madhubani districts.
Out of the nine dispatch centres in Patna, one in Bakipur girls high school had poll material meant for three constituencies. The Bakipur segment had 589 polling booths, Kumhrar 662 and Digha 711. The Bakhtiyarpur engineering college had another dispatch centre where election equipment for 410 booths was kept.
In the Gulzarbagh dispatch centre, devices meant for polling booths in the Patna Sahib constituency were been ept. BS College at Danapur housed poll gadgets meant for Danapur and Maner constituencies with 515 and 471 polling booths respectively.
At the end of polling on Tuesday evening, all EVMs, VVPATs and other devices will be returned to the strong rooms of the respective district headquarters.
For Patna districts, the EC has formed a strong room in AN College. The counting will be taken up there on November 10.
Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Sharma said 60 check posts have been formed, including 33 on the district borders and 27 in the city, to ensure peaceful elections. There are eight district borders abutting Patna.
"We have directed for thorough vehicle checkings at these places. Police and paramilitary forces are maintaining law and order. We will also conduct regular patrols through 20 boat teams in river Ganga to prevent any unlawful activity," Sharma said.
