Polling personnel, security men and voters in Palamu heaved a sigh of relief as the same team which conducted the incident-free lok Sabha election this year is at the helm of affairs this Vidhan Sabha election too.
The team for the lok Sabha election had DC in K N Jha and the SP Y S Ramesh. In the lok Sabha election Palamu remained calm. Nowhere gun boomed. No landmine blast took place. Polling teams returned home safely and cheerfully. The expectations are the same this Vidhan Sabha election and that keeps the SP Ramesh a bit cautious and careful who said in the Vidhan Sabha election the stakes are high, penetration far deeper and local issues matter most thus causing police to be alert 24X7.
Sources reminded that 50 plus inspectors, SIs and ASIs were transferred from Palamu when the lok sabha election was due and new incumbents took the seat triggering wild and wide apprehension that new officers of police would fare poorly but these men did their job well in this left wing extremist hit district Palamu and the poll went off peacefully.
In the joint Press briefing on Monday with Jha the SP Ramesh said “All the five assembly constituencies of Palamu are challenging. We cannot make any discrimination. The Daltonganj assembly constituency is as tough as the segment Harihurganj of the Hussainabad assembly constituency”.
The two beamed with confidence in the first of the five mandatory Press briefings on Monday wherein the DC who is the district election officer Palamu said “This time I have ten days more unlike the lok sabha polls when time was a major handicap and this 10 day time will give us more energy to cope up with the task of a fair, free and incidentless poll”.
Illicit liquor, shady characters, flaunting of licenced weapons are on the radar of the administration as for the curb of liquor sale the administration has set up liquor monitoring team since it comes free and in good quantity in election time. The SP remained tight lipped when asked for the number of CPMF reaching here saying in the lok sabha election the ECI officials had taken a bad note of an information in press about the number of central para military forces in Palamu.