PRAYAGRAJ, Nov. 9 -- As part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Prayagraj district is set to get 461 new polling booths, with the total number rising from 4,713 to 5,174. The restructuring follows fresh directives from the Election Commission of India (ECI), which mandate setting up one polling booth for every 1,200 voters. The formal document received by the district outlines proposed sites for the new polling centres, including multi-storey buildings, group housing societies, residential welfare associations, and urban colonies. Polling booths are also being planned near slum clusters to ensure accessibility for all voters, officials said. District election officer and district magistrate Manish Kumar Verma said election officials have been instructed to conduct a detailed survey in line with the ECI's format before finalising the new list of polling stations. The ECI has also directed that if fewer voters are at a booth, instead of shifting them to another centre, they should be accommodated at another booth within the same centre. It further instructed that polling booths or centres for a single family should not differ. For polling stations with fewer than 500 voters, physical verification will be done personally, and through logical analysis, it will be examined whether such booths can be adjusted or merged elsewhere. The special revision drive, which began on October 28, involves the entire district administration, including ADM (Administration), SDMs, Tehsildars, Naib Tehsildars, and supporting staff. The process is being conducted in phases as per the ECI schedule. In the first phase, booth-level officers (BLOs) are being trained in voter mapping to verify the current status of voters listed in 2003 and identify newly eligible ones. The district has been divided into zonal and sectoral units for better supervision. According to the ECI timeline, training and printing of enumeration forms were completed from October 28 to November 3, followed by door-to-door distribution and collection of forms from November 4 to December 4. The draft electoral roll will be published on December 9, with claims and objections accepted till January 8, 2026. Hearings and verifications will continue till January 31, and the final electoral roll will be published on February 7, 2026. The revision covers all assembly constituencies, based on the eligibility date of January 1, 2026....