Hyderabad: The Election Commission has removed polling stations located in four Assembly constituencies from the list of Maoist-affected areas for the November 30 polls. The number of affected stations stands at 13 now.
In 2018, the ECI had listed polling stations in 17 constituencies as Maoist-affected. The four constituencies taken off the list are Mahbubabad, Nirmal, Adilabad, and Ramagundam.
Those remaining on the list are Manthani, Chennur, Sirpur, Bellampalli, Asifabad, Mancherial, Bhupalpally, Mulugu, Illandu, Pinapaka, Aswaraopet, Bhadrachalam and Kothagudem.
Polling in these stations will be completed an hour early due to security reasons. In these places, polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., while elsewhere it will end at 5 p.m.
Urging electoral officers to take suitable measures towards this, ECI officials reviewed the arrangements ahead of the Assembly elections in a video conference. The state officials explained about measures being taken to initiate the nomination process, which will begin in the first week of November.
