Lucknow: Elaborate security has been made for Sunday’s fourth phase election in Uttar Pradesh covering 56 assembly seats in 11 districts of central parts of the state where fate of 967 candidates would be decided by more than 17.4 million voters.
The voting would start at 0700 hrs and would end at 1700 hrs.
After successfully completing peaceful elections in the first three phases in 170 assembly seats, including Naxalite belt, the state government continued to position a strong force in the sensitive areas of Chitrakoot, Banda, Pratapgarh, Hardoi and Lucknow in the fourth phase.
The state government has geared up the officials of all the 11 districts and equipped them with an additional force of 760 companies of both Central Para Military Force (CPMF) and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) along with over 1.25 lakh of extra civil force, home guards and Prantiya Raksha Dal (PRD) jawans, who would assist the local police to ensure incident free elections.
Two choppers would also be pressed into service for aerial survey of the Chitrakot-Banda belt. Inter-state border with Madhya Pradesh with Chidrakoot and Banda have been sealed to prevent entry of anti-social elements.
Officials said here on Saturday that like on previous occasions, this time too services of over 200 gazetted officers will be taken to supervise the law and order during the elections.
Similarly, Quick Reaction Team (QRT) have also been positioned in every police station level to meet out any SOS call.
The fourth phase of elections would witness 40 sitting MLAs contesting the polls while out of the total candidates in the fray on average 35 per cent are of criminal background and 47 per cent are crorepatis.
Of the total candidates 91 are women.
Election Commission, meanwhile, has ordered 24 hours videography of the tainted candidates in this phase. Over 80,000 poll personnel have been engaged to man over 18,600 polling booths.
The EC officials, who have held peaceful elections in the first three phases, have made all-out efforts to increase the polling percentage in this phase too.
While in the first phase on February 8, the polling percentage crossed 60 per cent mark but in the next two phases it was 55 per cent and 57 per cent on February 11 and February 15 respectively. Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said that the polling parties have started moving towards their destination from on Saturday morning.
The campaigning in this phase, going to polls on Sunday was lackluster. Senior leaders of all political parties addressed election meetings to woo the voters through their promises and agenda.
The polling in the sensitive Farrukhabad assembly seat in this phase came under controversy following Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s statement over Muslim reservation and censure by the Election Commission.
For the first time the EC made a formal complaint to President Pratibha Patil against the Law Minister for violating the Election Model Code of Conduct(MCC) by announcement of quota for the Muslims. SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav also made a statement announcing his support to the Congress if BJP tried to come to power which he later withdrew. (PTI)