Jaipur, March 16 (IANS): With a total of more than 5.32 crore people, including 15 lakh voting for the first time, have registered across Rajasthan for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the state is all set to participate in the biggest-ever festival of democracy, a top electoral officer said.

This time the percentage of female voters' registration has been more than that of males, which indicates the growing role of women in shaping democracy, said Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta, adding, "More than 22.54 lakh female voters have been included in the voter lists since 2019. This is an increase of 9.7 per cent as compared to the 9.27 per cent increase in registration of male voters."

He also said that due to intensive efforts towards gender parity, the electoral roll gender ratio, too, has surged positively.

The gender ratio increases from 919 in 2019 to 923 in 2024, Gupta added.

Speaking on participation of youth in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the state, the Chief Electoral Officer said, "More than 15 lakh youth, between the age of 18-19 years, have been added to the electoral rolls.

In 2019, total number of people between the age of 18-19 years were 12,82,118 while in 2024 they increased to 15,70,490.

The number of people belonging to the third gender has increased from 265 in 2019 to 616 in 2024.

There has been a 31.3 per cent increase in the number of differently-abled people voting since 2019, Gupta added.

A thorough house-to-house verification has been made and names of deceased, permanently shifted, and duplicate voters have been deleted from the electoral rolls. This comprehensive cleanup ensures the integrity and purity of the electoral process. It resulted in deletion of 2,65,707 voters due to death, duplicate names, shifting or absent voters during the last quarter of registrations since 2023 state Assembly elections, the Chief Electoral Officer said.