Assam’ Chief Electoral officer (CEO) Anurag Goel told ET, “We have asked Deputy Commissioners to use elephants in forest areas, fringe areas or inaccessible areas where, as per forest laws, vehicles are not allowed. In some places, we use boats to reach the polling station.”
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“Deputy Commissioners are mapping areas where they require elephants or boats. Despite the massive infrastructure, there are some areas which, owing to the terrain, is difficult to reach physically,” he said.
“When I was the Deputy Commissioner in Karbi Anglong I remember using elephants to reach difficult areas during polls. The idea is to ensure that all voters are covered and get the opportunity to cast their votes.”
A poll official said, “I remember using elephants, at least seven of them, during poll duty.”
Another official said, “We used to reach the Upper Langpi and Lower Langpi areas on elephants as they are remote places and it takes up to four hours on foot to reach these places from Hahim.”Kamrup was bifurcated into two districts of Kamrup and Kamrup (Metro) in 2003. A deputy commissioner who worked in Kamrup said elephants were used to carry polling personnel and electronic voting machines to a few polling stations. “Those gentle giants were the most effective way to reach the destination while it rained or roads were choked.”
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This is the first assembly election after the delimitation exercise of 2023 when constituencies were redrawn. Assam conducted special revision of electoral rolls instead of Special Intensive Revision as the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) is yet to be published.
Goel said when the electoral roll was published on February 10, the number of electors stood at 2,49,58,239. “As of March 15, after continuous updating, the number of electors has increased to 2,50,21,413. There has been a net addition of around 64,000 voters during this period, with about 1,64,000 additions and around one lakh deletions”.
On Monday, Goel said: “Improved infrastructure, availability of more buildings, bridges, etc., has led to the confidence to hold the state elections in a single phase”.
IGP (Law & Order) Akhilesh Kumar Singh, the nodal security officer for the polls, added, “Single-phase polling requires a lot of preparations and logistics, and maybe we are fully equipped now compared to earlier. Civil and police administrations are ready for holding polls”. Improvement in the law & order situation, especially the withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from most parts of the state, has also contributed to it, Singh added.
He said the state has sought 828 companies of central armed police force (CAPF), of which 200 companies have already arrived.
