Lok Sabha polls | Campaigning must end at 6 p.m. on April 17: Erode district election officer

Erode District Election Officer sets strict rules for campaigning ahead of Lok Sabha polls, deploying police personnel for security.

District Election Officer and Erode Collector Raja Gopal Sunkara has said all campaigning by candidates and political parties, including through SMS, cannot be carried out after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.

Addressing mediapersons at the Collectorate on preparedness for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled on April 19, he said campaigning through public address systems, public meetings, rallies, political advertisements in television, film or social media, sending bulk SMS or through any other form cannot be carried out 48 hours before the poll schedule. Also, street plays, dramas or cultural programmes that invite public attention cannot be carried out. He said persons, apart from voters, must all leave the constituency and are also not permitted to stay in community halls, hotels or lodges.”

Mr. Raja Gopal Sunkara said there are 19,66,496 electors in all the eight Assembly constituencies in the district while there are 15,38,778 electors in the six Assembly constituencies in the Erode Parliamentary constituency. 

A total of 1,571 local police personnel and 2,325 central armed police forces (CAPFs) personnel would be deployed for poll duty. Of the 2,222 polling stations in the district, 191 stations were identified as vulnerable, and additional CAPF personnel would be deployed on duty, he added. 

Live webcasting would be done at the 1,476 polling stations in the district and 1,112 polling stations in the constituency, he said and added that monitoring has been intensified at the 12 check-posts, including the five check-posts at State borders.

Mr. Raja Gopal Sunkara said 198 zonal and police teams for the district and 146 zonal and police teams for the constituency would be deployed for transporting electronic voting machines and other poll materials to the polling stations and later to the counting centres. He warned that action would be taken under Section 131 of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, against persons who are involved in disorderly conduct within 100 metres of polling stations.