Manipur: Poll preparations underway in Imphal West ahead of first phase of Lok Sabha elections

Imphal West (Manipur) [India], April 18 (ANI): Poll preparations are underway at the DC Office in Lamphelpat, Imphal West, ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 19.

Manipur will hold two phases of elections for its parliamentary constituencies. The Inner Manipur constituency will go to the polls on April 19, while voting in the Outer Manipur constituency will be held on April 26.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh as its candidate for the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat, while the Indian National Congress has fielded Angomcha Bimol Akoijam.

The district election officer, Th Kirankumar, told ANI that the first phase of the election is tomorrow. Polling personnel and security for the polling stations will disperse a day earlier. EVMs are already open.

“The first phase of the poll is taking place tomorrow. So, one day ahead of the poll we are dispersing the polling personnel and the security of the respective polling stations. The EVMs have been already opened. So after this, the material and all these machines will be kept in the proper places of the respective arrows,” he told ANI.

Informing about the security arrangement, the district election officer said, “We have a sufficient number of CAPF locations in vulnerable areas. In addition to that, we are putting all CCTV cameras, and videography in the entire 538 polling stations,” he said.

The district election officer also informed that the microobservers will be sent to 70 polling stations, either vulnerable or critical, to ensure smooth polling.

“We have a total of 70 polling stations, either vulnerable or critical. A smaller number of microobservers will be sent here, around 60, because some of them are located in the same school, for example, two polling stations. So we are sending one microobserver per polling station location,” he said.

Voting for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections will take place on April 19 in 102 constituencies across 21 states and Union Territories.

The following states and Union Territories will be conducting Phase 1 of voting: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. Vote counting will take place on June 4.