Delhi Polling Booths Rise to 14,947 as EC Caps Electors at 1,200 Per Station
The number of polling booths across Delhi has increased from 13,033 to 14,947 following approval from the Election Commission to cap the number of electors at each booth at 1,200, according to a release issued by the office of Chief Electoral Officer Ashok Kumar on Monday, August 24.
The rationalisation exercise was carried out to reduce the previous ceiling of 1,500 electors per polling booth to 1,200 to enhance voter convenience. The move comes ahead of the expected publication of the draft electoral roll following the completion of the special intensive revision enumeration exercise on August 17.
Across Delhi's 13 districts, 5,480 of the 13,033 existing booths were identified as having more than 1,200 registered electors. South East Delhi recorded the largest increase with 325 new booths, followed by North East Delhi with 244, South Delhi with 243, and East Delhi with 200.
The total number of booth locations—the physical buildings or premises housing polling stations—rose from 2,696 to 2,856. Multiple polling stations frequently operate from different rooms within the same school or government building, officials noted.
The rationalisation process started with physical verifications of existing polling station premises by senior officers designated by respective District Election Officers. Voters at overcrowded stations were reassigned to adjacent or newly established booths to comply with the 1,200-elector limit.
The process was initially scheduled to finish alongside the enumeration phase on August 17, but the timeline was extended after the Chief Electoral Officer requested additional time. Electoral Registration Officers and District Election Officers also held meetings with recognised political parties at the Assembly constituency and district levels to gather feedback before submitting the final proposal on August 21.
For roughly 240 polling stations where alternative locations could not be identified, Electoral Registration Officers were directed to project tentative voter counts after factoring in the deletion of entries under the absent, shifted, dead, duplicate, and other categories. Out of Delhi's 1.45 crore total electors, around 97.5 lakh, or 67.2 percent, are expected to feature in the draft roll.
