No mobile phones in Mumbai polling booths during voting: Poll official

Voters in Mumbai will not be allowed to carry mobile phones inside the polling booths at the time of voting during next month's Maharashtra assembly elections, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner and administrator Bhushan Gagrani said on Wednesday.

Elections to the 288-member Maharashtra legislative assembly will be held in a single phase on 20 November, and votes will be counted on 23 November.

Addressing a press conference at the BMC headquarters, Gagrani, who has been appointed as the district election officer for Mumbai and suburbs, said voters will either have to leave their mobile phones at home or hand them over to someone outside the polling station.

"Mobile phones will not be allowed inside the polling stations...Voters should make their own arrangement in this regard before entering the polling station," he said in response to a query.

Gagrani said the issue of whether mobile phones will be allowed at the polling booths was brought to the notice of the Election Commission of India (ECI) authorities during their recent visit to the city as there was confusion over it during the Lok Sabha polls.

The 'confusion' referred to here was presumably the case of Ravindra Waikar, the Shiv Sena candidate who emerged victorious from Mumbai North West constituency by a wafer-thin margin of 48 votes, using a mobile phone connected to an EVM during vote counting on 4 June, as per a report in Mid-day. Mangesh Pandilkar, the brother-in-law of Waikar, was booked a week later for allegedly using the mobile phone at the counting centre.

In Mumbai, there are a total of 36 assembly constituencies, of which 10 are located in the island city, while the remaining 26 are in the suburban district. Gagrani said the mapping of vulnerable polling booths has been completed, but so far no booths have been classified as vulnerable.

The final date for voter registration in Mumbai is 19 October and political parties have been informed about it. Before that, people should enrol their names in the voter list, but after the deadline, no changes would be made to the voting list, he said.

All the agencies, including district collectors, have been informed about the strict implementation of the model of code of conduct that came to effect from the announcement of the election schedule on Tuesday, he added.

Assured minimum facilities, like water, wheelchair, toilet facility, sitting arrangement will be provided at every polling station, Gagrani said, adding that auxiliary polling stations will be set up.

All the officers and staff necessary to carry out the poll procedure in the metropolis have been identified and they will undergo three rounds of training, of which the first round has begun, according to him.

Gagrani also requested political parties to raise awareness among voters about knowing the exact location of their polling booths to ensure maximum voter turnout.

Earlier in the day, he held a meeting with the representatives of all political parties and discussed code of conduct and other issues with them.

He said during Lok Sabha polls, the voters had to wait for a long time in queues at some polling stations. "Hence, we rationalised polling stations this time and also provided auxiliary polling stations, where there are more than 1,500 voters," he said.

As per ECI data, the Mumbai suburban district has 7,574 polling stations, of which 553 are located in cooperative housing societies, 229 in slums and 130 on the first floor of buildings. In Mumbai city, there are 2,537 polling stations, of which 100 are in housing societies, 313 in slum areas and 17 on the first floor of buildings.

With PTI inputs