More than 14 lakh voters from the
Darjeeling Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency will decide the fate of
the 13 candidates in the fray on Thursday. The first phase of the
election in North Bengal region in Darjeeling district comprising three
hill and four plains assembly segments including Chopra has a total of
14,15,168 voters. Of the total 7,23,226 are males, 6,91,921 are female
and 21 are bracketed as others.
The three hill assembly segments of
Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong have a total of 6,11,665 voters,
while the plains segments of Siliguri, Matigara-Naxalbari, Phansidewa
and Chopra have 8,03,503 voters. For the election, the district
administration, under the directive of the Election Commission, has set
up 1,829 polling booths, of which 1,633 are in Darjeeling district and
196 in Chopra. For the first time, four all-women polling booths (one in
the hills) have been established, besides 38 model polling booths (20
in Siliguri, 7 in Darjeeling, 6 in Kalimpong and 5 in Kurseong) have
also been provided by the EC.
Of the total number of polling booths,
1,153 in 951 areas come under the jurisdiction of the Darjeeling police,
while 480 booths are under the Siliguri Police Commissionerate. The
district police have identified 302 areas as highly sensitive, 403 as
critical, while 246 have been identified as normal.
To ensure a free and fair poll on
Thursday, the district administration has deployed 28 companies of the
central armed police force (CAPF) in Darjeeling district (7 under the
Siliguri Police Commisionerate and 21 under the Darjeeling police),
which include 14 companies of BSF and 7 of the Mizoram State Armed
Police. Four companies of the CAPF have been deployed in the Chopra
segment. Besides the CAPF, 2,500 state armed police personnel will be
deployed in Darjeeling district.
The district administration has
entrusted 8,780 polling personnel (including 20 per cent reserve
officials) to oversee the process of a part of the world’s largest
democratic exercise.
According to records with the district
administration, the farthest polling booths where voters will have to
travel 150km is located at Tangta Primary School in Kalimpong. The
polling booth at Srikhola Primary school in Darjeeling at an altitude of
12,000 feet is the highest in West Bengal.
The polling booth with the lowest number
of voters comprising 129 people is at the SSK Dudhey Barakothi in the
Kurseong segment and the highest voter numbers booth with 1,345 electors
is at the Rangia Junior Basic School in the Matigara-Naxalbari assembly
constituency. Voting on Thursday starts at 7am in the morning and ends
at 6pm in the evening while the results will be announced on May 16.(EOIC)