Graduate constituency voters decline by over 81,000

NAGPUR: The total number of voters for graduates’ constituency polls this year has come down by 81,769, as per a new list released by district administration on Wednesday. In the June 20, 2014, polls, which BJP’s Anil Sole had won, there were 2.88 lakh voters in the list.
This year, the district administration prepared a completely new list based on valid documents like Aadhaar card and university degree marksheet.
As per the statistics released by divisional commissioner Sanjeev Kumar, 1.91 lakh male and 95,904 female voters were registered in 2014. This year, the numbers are 1.25 lakh and 81,024, respectively. The highest decline is among males in Nagpur district — down by 47,825 voters. A new column of ‘others’ that includes transgender has been added in the list this year.
Kumar informed that this year 320 polling booths would be set up across six districts in the division with more than half in Nagpur alone. In 2014, 256 booths were set up for the process.
“After the December 1 elections, the counting would take place at Mankapur indoor stadium on December 3. There would be a preferential pattern of voting. We’re hoping that the results would be out on the same day,” Kumar said, adding that besides the election card, the voter can bring other valid identity cards like Aadhar, PAN, licence and others.
This year’s polls would be held under strict Covid-19 protocol with masks being made mandatory for every voter at polling booths. All visitors would also be subjected to the thermal scanning and if temperature is found to be above the normal, they would be given a token and allowed to exercise their franchise in the last two hours of polling.
“We’ve already uploaded a voter list on the government website. Voters can find out their names from the list. We’ve roped in 1,811 government staff for the polling duties. About 31 candidates have filed nominations. Of them five were rejected while seven withdrew, leaving 19 candidates in the fray,” said Kumar.
Meanwhile, Shikshak Bharti, which had withdrawn its candidate Kishore Warbhe from the polls, extended its support to Maha Vikas Aghadi nominee Abhijit Wanjari. “We’ve taken this decision to avoid division of votes while fighting with BJP. All our activists would campaign for Wanjari. The Maha Vikas Aghadi has assured us that they will not contest next MLC polls and support our candidate. We’ve a strength of over 25,000 voters which would help MVA candidate to win,” coordinator Atul Deshmukh said.