Nagpur: The political activities intensified in the Second Capital of Maharashtra as the filing of nominations by the candidates for the State Assembly polls started from Tuesday. Except Bharatiya Janata Party that declared its first list of 99 candidates, no other major party has released its list of candidates.
According to the poll schedule announced by the Election Commission of India, the process of filing nominations will start from Tuesday, and continue till October 29. The scrutiny of nominations will be held on October 30. Candidates can withdraw their candidature by November 4. Polling will be held on November 20 while counting of votes will be conducted on November 23.
The candidates can submit their nomination papers at different centres in Nagpur. The poll candidates in the urban constituencies and those in rural ones will have separate centres to submit their nominations. The candidates of Nagpur South-West Assembly constituency have to submit their nominations at the Office of Sub-Divisional Officer, Tehsil office.
Those interested to contest from South Nagpur will have to submit their papers with the Deputy Collector (Acquisition), first floor, Collectorate; those at Nagpur East will have to file nominations at Sanjay Gandhi Yojana office, first floor, Collectorate. The candidates of various parties and independent contestants of Nagpur North constituency will have to reach Tehsil office, Office of EGS, first floor, Collectorate. For Nagpur Central constituency, the centre has been fixed at the old office of State Excise, Collectorate.
The centre of filing nominations for the Katol constituency is SDO Office, Katol; for Saoner, the centre is SDO office, Saoner. Similarly, candidates contesting from Hingna constituency will have to submit nominations at Tehsil Office, Hingna. SDO office, Umred will be the centre of receipt of nominations for Umred constituency. Tehsil office, Kamptee and Tehsil office, Ramtek will be the centres of receipt of nominations for Kamptee and Ramtek Assembly constituencies respectively.
The District Collector Dr Vipin Itankar has reaffirmed their resolution to achieve a target of 75% voter turnout in the Assembly elections on November 20. The administration will set up a total of 2,158 polling stations in six Assembly constituencies in the city. Nagpur (North) constituency will feature the most number of polling stations with 407 while Nagpur (Central) will have the lowest with 308. Kamptee constituency has the highest number of polling stations in the district with 524.
The district authorities have also decided to provide all permissions needed by candidates in one place for which one window system is set up for faster processing of documents. Dr Itankar said the Election Commission will have a strict watch on social media. Strict action will be taken on anti-social elements spreading misinformation, he warned.