With vast areas that qualify as difficult terrain and remote villages in deserts that have very low populations, poll-bound Rajasthan will have some polling stations for as low as 34 voters and booths that will be set up in the sparsely populated and punishing desert landscape of Barmer and the remote reaches of the state's only hill station Mt Abu.
In Barmer Ka Par village in Barmer district that lies close to the international border with Pakistan, a polling station is being set up for just 34 voters. The polling booth for the voters of Barmer Ka Par was earlier located nearly 10 km away. A mobile booth was set up in the 2008 elections, and a new booth was later set up for a single family.
In Manjholi, another village in Barmer, a polling booth will be set up for 49 voters. The booth in the previous election for the residents of the village was nearly five km away. The information was shared by the Election Commission at its press conference in Jaipur on Sunday after its three-day visit to take stock of poll preparations in the state.
As per the presentation made by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, Menau polling booth in Jaisalmer also has just 49 voters. A temporary booth will be established there on poll day.
A polling station will be set up in Utraj village on Abu Road for 238 voters. In Shergaon, which is situated at an altitude of 4,921 feet in Mount Abu, a polling booth will be set up for 117 voters. Kumar said the polling teams will have to walk through the forest accompanied by a forest guard to reach the booth in Shergaon.
The commission carried out a special registration drive for the voters of the Sahariya tribe, which has a population of 1.18 lakh. Eligible voters among the Sahariyas are 77,343, all of whom are registered. As many as 24,726 voters belonging to vulnerable tribes were registered during 2023 in special cluster camps.
Rajasthan has 5.25 crore voters spread across 200 constituencies, 25 out of which are reserved for scheduled tribes and 34 for scheduled castes, as per the statistics shared by the election panel.
The state has 2.73 crore male voters, 2.51 crore female voters and 604 transgenders. Among the registered voters, 5.61 lakh are persons with disability, 11.8 lakh are aged above 80 years and 18,462 are centenarians. The state has 21.9 lakh first-time voters, most of whom are in the age group of 18-19. The number of service electors stands at 1.41 lakh.
The commission conducted special camps to enrol newly-wed women whose addresses changed after marriage. A total of 29,643 women were registered through these camps. The gender ratio of voters in the state currently stands at 920. In 95 constituencies, there are fewer female voters than male. Same is the case with 24,665 polling stations. In 10,257 polling stations, the female turnout was less than the male turnout by five per cent.
Rajasthan will have a total of 51,756 polling stations in the upcoming assembly elections, with an average number of 1,002 voters per polling station. As many as 10,415 will be set up in urban areas and 41,341 booths will be in rural areas. A total of 200 booths will be managed by officials who have disabilities.