<span style="color: black;">The polling for the General Election for the 30 member Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Puducherry will begin at 7 am tomorrow morning. Voting will be held up to 7 pm in the evening.<br />''<br />''Two hundred and eighty nine male and 35 women candidates are contesting in the election. Ten lakh four thousand five hundred and seven voters will decide the electoral fortune of these 324 candidates in the fray.<br />''<br />''The voters have to produce either EPIC or any of the 11 alternative documents prescribed by the Election Commission of India at the time of voting. A total of 31,864 first time voters in the age group of 18 – 19 years are eagerly waiting to exercise their franchise. One thousand five hundred and fifty eight polling stations have been set up in 635 locations in the Union Territory. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic threat, COVID protocols will be strictly followed inside and outside the polling booths. <br />''<br />''All the EVMs and other arrangements are already put in place. The District Election Officer Purva Garg visited the distribution centres today, to inspect the movement of EVMs to the polling stations. Security beefed up across the UT. A total of 6835 polling staff, 4811 security personnel along with 40 companies of CRPF have been deployed. </span><br />