A case study on Monitoring and Tracking Election Polling Booths Using GIS in Telangana, India

Abstract. Elections are the foundation of a democratic system because they give people the essential chance to select their representatives and have an active role in national administration. In India, the largest democracy in the world, independent constitutional authorities are tasked with conducting free, fair, and transparent elections. This duty is handled by the State Election Commissions (SECs) in each state, while the Election Commission of India (ECI) is in charge of it at the federal level.

Elections for the Lok Sabha (House of the People), Rajya Sabha (Council of States), and State Legislative Assemblies are supervised by the Election Commission of India, while elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies, including corporations and municipalities, are handled by the State Election Commissions. The Representation of the People Act and the Constitution's laws and regulations are followed during elections thanks to these commissions.

The election officials collaborate closely with law enforcement organizations, including as the state police, central armed police forces, and paramilitary groups, to uphold order and stop any kind of misconduct. Their combined efforts are essential to preserving the sanctity of the voting process, guaranteeing voter safety, avoiding intimidation, and preserving peace.

In order to guarantee that every citizen's voice is heard and represented in the country's government, India's electoral system uses these procedures to try and exemplify the democratic values of equality, openness, and participation.

The significant challenges toward the conduction of free, fair, and peaceful polling included preventing incidents of sabotage, reporting and managing incidents, countering terror threats, planning traffic movement, ensuring crowd control, enabling public information dissemination, and maintaining social harmony in coordination with all relevant government departments. This case study shows how the Cutting-edge technologies, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), played a key role in achieving the objectives while maintaining law and order.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Indian state of Telangana was covered by 35,356 polling booths, with approximately 9,900 being identified as sensitive (28%) for a multitude of reasons. Around 1.88 lakh personnel were deployed: 73,414 ranks of Civil Police, 500 sections of TS Special Police, 164 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), 3 companies of Tamil Nadu SAP, 2088 ranks from other departments and 7,000 Home Guards sources from other states.