72,000 first timers to vote in upcoming assembly polls

In its drive for enrollment of voters, the district administration has succeeded in registering 72,000 first time voters along with over 1.85 lakh citizens, whose names would appear in the draft list to be published on July 31.

District collector Saurabh Rao, while speaking to media persons, said that even though the draft list would be published on July 31, the ongoing drive to register voters would be continued from August 1. He also said that the enrollment of voters would be continued till 10 days before the last day of nominations for the ensuing assembly polls.

According to Rao, taking into account the electoral to population ratio for Pune, there are still 2.80 lakh eligible voters who are not included in the voters list and district election branch has a challenge to reach out to them. He said that the administration would take various measures to enroll these eligible voters which would include appointing youth ambassadors, taking help from media, organizing street plays for creating awareness about voter's enrollment and appointing campus ambassadors at colleges.

Rao also added that the data entry for the three lakh applications received during the voter's registration drive is almost complete. While there are 2.59 lakh new names, 30219 applications are for change of addresses. He said that there are 5239 applications for deletion of names while 6951 applicants are being included who were deleted from the list and had previously voted.