GUWAHATI: The first vote for the Lok Sabha elections 2019 has been cast from Arunachal Pradesh by DIG Sudhakar Natarajan, head of ATS Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). The soldiers of ITBP were the first to cast their votes for the LS elections 2019 as service voters.
The first round of voting by secret ballot began at 10 am on Friday, five days before the first phase of the elections due on April 11. The voting took place at ITBP Animal Training School (ATS) located at Lohitpur in Arunachal Pradesh.
Apart from ATS unit of nearly 30 soldiers, other ITBP unites deployed in the state also cast their votes through postal ballot. A total o nearly 5000 personnel from the security forces exercised their vote.
Further, ballot papers have been dispatched to Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Bangalore, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other places for the service personnel to vote.
There are roughly 30 lakh service voters including defense and paramilitary forces who will cast their votes through service voter facility.
The Election Commission of India, this year, has taken several steps to add more service voters in the election process and they have been provided with the option of either voting through postal ballot or through a proxy voter duly appointed by him/her.