Lok Sabha polls phase 7: Bihar gets polling booth with creche, breastfeeding room

In a bid to lure more and more voters to exercise their franchise at polling stations and to make them more citizen-friendly, a polling booth in Bihar's capital Patna is offering a unique experience to the electorates as special arrangements such as creche, breastfeeding room and first aid facilities have been set up.

To make voting hassle-free for those accompanied by toddlers, tables, chairs, and board games have been set up for the kids to enjoy whilst their parents exercise their franchise without having to worry about their little ones.

"A creche and a breastfeeding room are being set up which is almost ready. Along with these, tables and chairs have been placed for children so that they can play board games. There are bats and balls as well for them. It is a child-friendly booth," Renu Kumari, an official, told ANI.

"The idea is to make sure that children should feel good and not feel stressed out. If they want to relax, they can take a nap as well," she added.

Underlining that no voter should be left behind, Kumari said, "Be it any pregnant lady or mother having little children or breastfeeding mothers, these facilities have been set up so that they do not get inconvenienced while they come out to vote tomorrow."

In Jharkhand's Dumka, which is going to polls tomorrow along with two other seats, polling parties have left for their respective polling stations after collecting EVMs and VVPATs.

"Tomorrow, we will do an air recce to keep a watch on sensitive areas during polling. We have deployed paramilitary forces at hyper-sensitive polling booths. Adequate forces have been deployed in areas based on their sensitivity. We hope that there is a huge voter turnout here," Dumka Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Kumar told ANI.

A total of 59 parliamentary constituencies will go to polls on May 19. About 918 candidates are in the fray.

In the last phase of polling, 13 seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, all four constituencies in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and one seat in the Union Territory of Chandigarh will witness polling.

Counting of votes for all 543 constituencies will take place on May 23.