Home voting begins in Darjeeling and Kalimpong

EOI, DARJEELING, APRIL 22, 2024 : This time round about 3600 people have applied for home voting in the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency. The voting process has already started and will conclude on April 24, officials of the Darjeeling district administration said on Monday.

In case of home voting, polling personnel visit the residence of the voter and accept the vote in ballot paper. Citizens aged 85 years and above and those with a minimum of 40 percent disability are eligible to take advantage of this facility.

Addressing a news conference on Monday, Darjeeling District Magistrate Priety Goyal said: “In the seven assembly constituencies 3,600 people had applied for home voting which will conclude on April 24. The votes will be counted as a postal ballot.

Apart from that there are more than11, 000 service voters for whom electronically transmitted ballots have been issued and will be counted as postal ballots.

”Of the seven assembly segments under the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency, five are in the Darjeeling district and one each in Uttar Dinajpur district, the Chopra assembly segment, and one in Kalimpong district, the Kalimpong assembly segment. 

The total number of voters for the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency is 1,765,744. Of them 884, 335 are male and 881,368 female electors with 41 being third gender voters.

The Darjeeling District Magistrate said there were 1,999 polling stations in Darjeeling parliamentary constituency. 

“Everything is peaceful and there has been no report of law and order problems. We hope to have a peaceful election. Central Armed Force Personnel will be present in100 percent of the polling stations, ”she said. 

“The voting on April 26 will start from 7 o’clock in the morning and end at 6 o’ clock in the evening. Those who will be standing in queue at 6 p.m. will be allowed to vote,” Goyal said. A total of 54 polling stations will be manned by women polling personnel. 

The Darjeeling DM said there were three polling stations for which polling personnel would start moving on April 24. These were Daragaon Junior High School, Rammam Forest Primary School and Samanden Forest Primary School, all in Pulbazar Block. 

For the other polling stations, the polling personnel would move on April 25.All campaigning will stop at 6p.m. on April 24. All liquor shops will also remain closed from that time till the conclusion of the polls.

KalimNews: In Kalimpong assembly constituency of the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency, which comes under Phase-2 of the elections across India, Vote From Home (VFH) have been started from 16 April and will continue till 23 April. According to Balsubramanian T, the District Magistrate there are 1039 elderly senior citizen voters including some Pwd voters. The voters of the constituency have and are exercising their voting rights at their own residence.