First Phase of General Election Notification Today: Andhra Pradesh Chief Electroral Officer

Notification for last general elections in combined Andhra Pradesh state is going to be released today. This was informed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Bhanwar Lal. He spoke to the media on Tuesday and said that notification for 17 Lok Sabha and 119 assembly constituencies will be released and nominations can be submitted till 9^th April. 10^th is the date for scrutinizing the nominations and the nominations can be withdrawn till 12^th April.

Vijayawada: Bhanwar Lal also said that there are 6,41,01,895 registered voters in the state. Among these 3,22,03,786 are men and 3,18,46,785 are women. Other are 5,213 and 46,110 are service voters.

Voter slips that contain the details of voters, polling booth number and address will be sent to every house from 7^th April. This program will begin at Hyderabad first. In other Telangana regions, this process will start on 10th and end by 20^th April. Awareness programs on usage of electronic voting machines will also be conducted from 10^th in Telangana and 17^th in Seemandhra.

As part of election procedure submission and withdrawal of nominations will be allowed in three holidays also. nominations will be accepted on Jagjeevan Ram Jayanthi on 5^th April and Sri Rama Navami on 8^th April. Nominations can be withdrawn on April 12 which is a second Saturday. In the second phase there will be two holidays but nominations will not be accepted on these two days. Ambedkar Jayanthi and Good Friday are holidays.

In constituencies where there is influence of Maoists, polling will be allowed from 7.00 am to 4.00 pm only. 21 constituencies are identified as Maoist affected constituencies. Among these 21 constituencies are going for polls in the first phase. Sirpur, Asifabad, Khanapur, Chennuru, Manthani, Achampet, Kalvakurti, Kollapur, Bhupalpalli, Mulugu and Bhadrachalam are the area in which polling will end by 4.00 pm. In other constituencies it will continue till 6.00 pm. These timings are applicable for both assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

In the second phase, polling will be held in 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies. Among these Maoist affected constituencies are Kurupam, Parvatipuram, Saluru, Araku valley, Paderu, Rampachodavaram, Pedakurapadu, Vinukonda, Gurajala and Macherla and in these polling time is 7.00 am to 4.00 pm. In the remaining constituencies polling will continue till 6.00 pm.