Patna, March 17 (IANS): More than 7.64 crore people in Bihar are eligible to exercise their franchise in the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, as per the Election Commission data till January 22.

Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) H.R. Srinivasa said on Saturday that there are 4,00,29,136 male and 3,64,01,903 female voters in the state. Besides, there are 2,290 transgender voters who are eligible to exercise franchise in the Lok Sabha elections.

The highest 2,00,60,957 voters are in the 30-39 age group. The first-time voters in the 18 to 19 years age group are 10,03,175 while the number of voters in the 20-29 age group is 1,63,17,371, he said.

The CEO further said that 1,63,64,409 voters are in the 40-49 age group; 1,10,23,508 voters are in the age group of 50 to 59; 69,54,672 voters are in the 60-69 age group; 36,17,832 voters are between 70 and 79-year-old; and the number of voters in the 80 or above age group is 14,35,807.

"In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, we provided the postal ballot facilities to the voters who are aged 80 or above but this time we have decided to provide this facility only to those who are above 85-year-old and their number is 6,66,949," Srinivasa said.

The total number of polling stations in Bihar is 77,392 -- 11,162 in urban and 66,230 in rural areas.

The Election Commission has also proposed to set up 243 model polling stations, 76 polling stations managed by youth, and 243 polling stations managed by women in the state.