NEW DELHI

The number of polling booths in Delhi has increased from 13,033 to 14,947, with the Election Commission (EC) having approved the rationalisation of booths to cap the number of electors at each booth at 1,200, a release from the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashok Kumar stated on Monday.

1,200 voters per booth

The rationalisation was undertaken in view of the EC’s decision to reduce the limit of 1,500 electors per booth to 1,200 for the convenience of voters.

The announcement comes a week before the draft electoral roll is expected to be published following the completion of the special intensive revision (SIR) enumeration exercise on August 17.

Across the 13 districts, 5,480 of the 13,033 existing booths were found to have more than 1,200 electors, according to data accessed by The Hindu.

South East Delhi saw the largest increase in booths (325), followed by North East Delhi (244), South Delhi (243) and East Delhi (200). The number of booth locations — individual buildings or premises housing polling stations — has increased from 2,696 to 2,856.

Multiple polling stations operate from different rooms in the same school or government building, an official explained.

The rationalisation exercise began with physical verification of existing polling station locations by senior officers appointed by the respective District Election Officers (DEOs).

Electors were subsequently shifted to adjacent or newly created booths to bring the number within the prescribed ceiling at stations exceeding the 1,200 limit, the release stated. The process, initially scheduled to be completed along with the enumeration phase on August 17, was extended after the CEO sought additional time.

Meetings were also held by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) at the Assembly constituency level and by District Election Officers at the district level with recognised political parties to seek their suggestions.

Tentative no. of electors

The final proposal was submitted for approval on August 21, an official said. For nearly 240 remaining polling stations requiring rationalisation, for which alternative locations could not be found, EROs were asked to provide the tentative number of electors expected to remain after the deletion of entries listed under the ‘absent’, ‘shifted’, ‘dead’, ‘duplicate’ and ‘others’ categories.

Of the total 1.45 crore electors, the names of nearly 97.5 lakh (67.2%) are expected to be included in the draft roll.