The Election Commission of India (ECI) has marked 4,478 of 6,066 polling booths in the second phase of elections as hypersensitive and sensitive, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinay Kumar Choubey said on Friday, adding sufficient security forces have been deployed at the booths marked as sensitive and hypersensitive in a bid to ensure peaceful polling on Saturday.
“There are 949 hypersensitive and 762 sensitive polling stations in LWE-affected areas. The number of non-LWE sensitive polling stations is 2005 and the number of non-LWE hypersensitive polling stations is 762. Apart from this, 1,588 general polling stations have been identified,” Choubey said.
The 20 constituencies going to polls on Saturday are spread across districts that have presence of Left Wing Extremist (LWE) groups. Saraikela Kharsawan, one of the districts going to polls on Saturday, witnessed at least three incidents of encounter between security forces and LWE rebels after the 17th Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. Five policemen were shot dead by CPI (Maoist) rebels at a weekly bazaar within the periphery of the district weeks after the results of General Elections were out.
Addressing mediapersons in Ranchi, Choubey said polling personnel were sent to 1,455 polling stations two days prior to the polling day, while poll personnel in other stations were sent a day earlier.
“The polling personnel have reached their cluster centers safely. Some polling stations were airdropped at 155 polling stations located in LWE-affected areas,” he said.
Choubey added in the second phase 5,784 weapons were deposited against a total of 7,031 licensed weapons. The number of non-bailable warrants served was 2,588, while the number of non-bailable warrants pending is 88.
At least 101 polling stations in the second phase have been relocated for security reasons, he added. A majority of the relocated booths were shifted from areas where LWE activities were traced to areas which were relatively safer.
The Government here claims to have pushed the LWE groups on back foot in the past five years. The latest report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also backs the claim of the Government. The MHA report says that LWE incidents have reduced from 501 in 2010 to 205 in 2018. However, Jharkhand has witnessed at least two LWE incidents since the announcement of elections here on November 1.
As per figures with the MHA, at least 19 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are LWE-affected.
Elections for the 81 seats here are being held in five phases. The polling started on November 30 and will conclude on December 20. The votes will be counted on December 23.