This was after the apex polling body on March 15 announced the poll schedule for assembly elections in four states—Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal—along with the union territory of Puducherry. The poll panel also issued dates for bye-elections in six states during the same press briefing.

The ECI said that there are over 17.4 crore eligible electors set to vote in the assembly elections in the four states and one union territory. The deployment of 25 lakh election officials would ensure close to one official for every 70 voters.

The Chief Election Officer (CEO), Gyanesh Kumar, said in the briefing that officials have been directed to act with complete impartiality in a bid to ensure the elections are violence-free and inducement-free so that each elector votes without fear or favour.

The personnel deployed for the purpose include around 15 lakh polling personnel, 8.5 lakh security personnel, 40 thousand counting personnel, 49 thousand micro-observers, 21 thousand sector officers, and 15 thousand micro-observers for counting, among other officials.

Meanwhile, the field-level election machinery, including over 2.18 lakh block-level officers (BLOs), is available to help on a phone call and through the Book-a-call to BLO facility on the ECINet mobile application. The call centre number +91 (STD Code) 1950 is also available if electors wish to file any complaint or have any query at the DEO/RO level, the ECI said.

Meanwhile, the poll panel further appointed 1,111 central observers, including 557 general observers, 188 police observers and 366 expenditure observers, to be deployed across the 832 assembly constituencies in the four states and one union territory to act as the eyes and ears of the Election Commission during the general elections and the bye-elections. The polling body stated that most of the central observers deployed have already reached their respective assigned assembly constituencies.

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