Unprecedented security arrangements have been made for the crucial by-elections to one lok Sabha and 11 Assembly seats in the state on Saturday.
A record number of 213 companies of central forces have been deployed for manning the booths and security during the polls.
Campaigning for the by-elections, which reached its crescendo, ended on Thursday evening. Polling for the by-polls will be held between 7am to 6pm. Counting of votes will be held on coming Monday from 8am and all results are likely to cleared by the afternoon. A total of 118 candidates are in the fray for 11 Assembly seats while 12, including Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, grandson of
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s elder brother, are contesting for Mainpuri lok Sabha seat.
“Adequate number of security personnel,including those of the central forces, have been deployed in constituencies to ensure free and fair elections. A micro observer has also been deployed at all polling centers, who would be an official or employee of the central government,” disclosed chief electoral officer, Umesh Sinha, who claimed that they made facility of video recording in all the centers as well as provisions of web-casting in 176 sensitive polling stations.
The ruling SP and BJP are contesting on all seats, but in some Assembly seats, Congress is trying to intrude into the vote bank of both the SP and BJP. BSP is not contesting the by-polls this time, but have announced to support some of the Independent candidates.
Congress is not contesting from the lone Mainpuri lok Sabha seat and indirectly supporting SP. All Assembly seats, except for Rohania, have been vacated by the BJP. The 11 Vidhan Sabha seats where bypolls are going to be held include Saharanpur city, Bijnor, Thakurdwara, Noida, Nighasan, lucknow East, Hamirpur, Charkhari, Sirathu, Balha and Rohania. In Mainpuri lok Sabha seat, there are 1,929 polling booths and a total of 16,47,176 electorate are expected to exercise their franchise. For the 11 Assembly seats, the total number of electorate is 41,15073. There are a total 2010 booths in 11 Assembly segments. All 5,939 polling booths of one lok Sabha and 11 Assembly seats here would be manned by Central forces to ensure safety and security of people.