Registration of voters to end on March 15

Chief electoral officer for Andhra Pradesh Gopala Krishna Dwivedi announced that the Model Code of Conduct came into force in the state from Sunday evening with the announcement of Lok Sabha election schedule by the Election Commission of India. Addressing a press meet at Velagapudi of Amaravati on Sunday night, he said March 15 would be the last date for submitting the applications for registration of voters.

Mr Dwivedi said that since the model code of conduct has come into no more names could be deleted from the voters’ list and only new names could be added.

Mr Dwivedi said that the total number of voters in Andhra Pradesh stands at 3,82,31,026. He said 1,35,102 names were added to the list since January 11. He said the EC received 9,27,542 applications for deletion of names, of which 7,24,914 have been verified and

5,25,957 rejected. The remaining applications would be verified soon and deletion of names would be possible only with the permission of the ECI.

Mr Dwivedi said the state had 45,920 polling booths in

13 districts of which 9,345 had been classified as critical because of possible disturbances owing to faction fights, Naxalism, etc. He said these booths have been further categorized into A, B, C and D categories according to the threat of disturbances and central forces would be deployed in the most sensitive ones that fall under the D category.

He said the EC was making arrangements for ramps and wheelchairs and Braille information for physically disabled voters at the polling booths and there were plans to implement a token system for voters.