New Delhi/LUCKNOW/PATNA/RANCHI/KOLKATA: More than 60,000 security personnel, including the Home Guards and paramilitary forces, have been deployed across the city a day before the Lok Sabha elections here.
Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik told PTI that elaborate arrangements, according to the instructions of the Election Commission of India, are in place to ensure no anti-social element causes any menace.
Security personnel have been deployed at polling booths and special reserve parties and policemen are patrolling vulnerable areas, the police said.
The Police Control Room Unit will also stay alert to calls of any complaints being made, specially relating to the election process, they added.
“The model code of conduct is being strictly enforced. There is a special watch on border areas to foil any attempt to infiltrate by anti-social elements to cause disruption. There will be strict vigil to ensure malpractices like liquor peddling and movement of anti-social elements with a purpose to influence voters do not happen,” Patnaik said.
Akhilesh, Maneka among key candidates in UP
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Union minister Maneka Gandhi are among key contestants in the second-last phase of polling in 14 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.
Polling will be held in Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkarnagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabirnagar, Lalganj, Jaunpur, Machchlishahr, Bhadohi and Azamgarh constituencies in Purvanchal region of the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had won 13 of these 14 constituencies in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The only exception was Azamgarh, won then by SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. However, the BJP had to bite the dust in the bypolls in Phulpur and Gorakhpur constituencies last year. While, the anti-BJP alliance would like to retain its grip over both the seats, the saffron party is looking to wrest them from the opposition.
Eight LS seats in Bihar
Four sitting MPs, including a member of the Narendra Modi cabinet, are among the 127 candidates whose electoral fortunes will be decided by 1.38 crore voters in the sixth and penultimate phase of Lok Sabha elections in Bihar on Sunday. Amid tight security, polling will be held in eight Lok Sabha seats – Sheohar, Valmiki Nagar, Pashchimi Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Siwan, Gopalganj, Maharajganj and Vaishali. Among the 127 candidates, 16 are women – eight in Vaishali, four in Siwan and one each in Sheohar, Maharajganj, Purvi Champaran and Valmiki Nagar.
While Purvi Champaran and Vaishali have the highest number of candidates – 22 each -Pashchimi Champaran has nine contestants in the fray, the least among the eight seats.
Over 66L J’khand voters
Jharkhand minister Chandraprakash Choudhary, former cricketer Kirti Azad and ex-chief minister Madhu Koda’s wife Gita are among the 67 candidates whose fate will be sealed in the third phase of Jharkhand polls Sunday.
Polling will be held between 7 am and 4 pm in four Lok Sabha constituencies — Dhanbad, Giridih, Jamshedpur and Singhbhum (ST) — all won by the BJP in 2014. Altogether, 66,85,401 voters, including 31,79,720 women and 116 of the third gender, will be exercising their franchise in 8,300 polling stations, amid tight security. In Giridih, NDA candidate and Ajsu Party leader Choudhary is taking on JMM MLA Jagarnath Mahato.
Eight LS seats in Bengal
Eight Lok Sabha constituencies spread across five districts in West Bengal will go to polls in the sixth phase of general elections on Sunday. The ruling Trinamool Congress, the BJP, the Congress and the Left Front constituents – the CPI(M), the CPI and the AIFB – are the main contenders in the eight seats, where the fate of 83 candidates will be decided by a 1,33,69,749-strong electorate.
In this phase, polling will be held in Jangal Mahal – the forested region of Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram and Purulia districts, which used to be a Maoist hotbed, during the erstwhile Left Front government. (PTI)