Maharashtra Election 2024: Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar held a press conference in Mumbai on Saturday regarding the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. During this, he said that political parties have requested the Election Commission to schedule elections keeping in mind the upcoming festivals like Diwali and Chhath Puja. Let us inform that Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and SS Sandhu are on a two-day visit to Maharashtra.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that national parties and regional parties – Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) ), has met leaders of 11 parties including Shiv Sena-UBT. Along with this, he has also met the Director General of Police, District Magistrate and Police Commissioner. Political parties have asked us to consider festivals like Diwali, Dev Diwali and Chhath Puja before announcing election dates.
Increased participation of women, disabled and youth
He said that there are 288 constituencies in Maharashtra. There are 1 lakh 186 polling stations and 42,558 urban and 57,600 rural booths. It will be our endeavor to install CCTV cameras to monitor all the booths in urban areas, however, in rural areas too we will be able to provide CCTV facility at at least 50 percent of the booths. He said that in order to increase the participation of women, disabled and youth in voting, 388 booths will be managed only by women. 299 and 350 booths will be managed by disabled people and youth respectively.
Voting will be held before November 26
He said that the facilities at all the polling stations have been reviewed. District election officers have been asked to personally inspect the polling stations and see the arrangements. Arrangements should be made so that voting takes place in a queue manner at the time of voting. During this time he has clarified that the assembly elections will be completed here before 26th November.
Social media will be monitored
The Chief Election Commissioner said that social media will be monitored at the time of elections, so that fake and misleading news is not spread. He has directed the officials to take immediate action against those doing so, so that no disruption occurs. Along with this, he said that it is the right of the voters to know whether any candidate has a criminal background or not, the parties should also inform.
