Page 276 - Leap of Faith Vol - 2
P. 276

Leap of Faith      Journey of Indian Elections






















                                                                                                       CEC Rajiv Kumar along with
                                                                                                       ECs  Anup Chandra Pandey and
                                                                                                       Arun Goel at the Vote Fest organized by
                                                                                                       CEO Karnataka on March 10, 2023


                              number  of  electors  in  Karnataka  to  5,31,33,054.  It
                              included names of 11,71,558 young voters aged between   Election Commission of India organised a hackathon
                              18 and 19 years; 5,71,281 PwD voters; and 12,15,920   competition viz. Electhon, 2023 ahead of the Karnataka
                              voters  in  80+  category.  Provisions  made  for  58,282   Legislative Assembly elections to tap the most brilliant
                              polling  stations  were  thus  revised,  and  increased  to   ideas  for  making  elections  more  inclusive  and
                              58,545 polling stations in 37,777 locations.        participatory. e three problem statements put up for

                              A total of 2615 candidates vied for 224 assembly seats at   solution  were  –  a)  How  to  enhance  participation  of
                              stake. Around four lakh polling personnel were engaged   urban  and  youth  voters  in  the  elections?  b)  How  to
                                                                                  ensure the registration of new voters in the electoral
                                                                                  roll? c) Devise a solution that can boost voter turnout on
                                                   e  sole  manufacturer  of     polling day.
                                                   indelible ink, used in elections
                                                                                  e  hackathon  drew  participation  from  2,936  teams
                                                   across  India,  is  a  Karnataka
                                                   based company. e office of      and  4,399  individuals.  Around  493  ideas  were
                                                   Mysore  Paints  and  Varnish   submitted,  out  of  which  67  were  shortlisted.  e
                                                   Company  Ltd,  owned  by       mentors  and  jury  members  included  eminent  civil
                                Government of Karnataka, is situated in Mysuru. e   servants and technocrats.
                                company recently supplied 1,30,000 vials of indelible
                                ink to the office of CEO, Karnataka for use in elections
                                in the home state. Each vial contains 10 ML of ink that   in  the  polling  process;  whereas  more  than  84,000
                                could be used to ink the forefingers of at least 700 voters.   personnel of Karnataka Police, and 58,500 personnel of
                                                                               Central Armed Police Forces provided security.


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