The stage is now set for Ranchi mayoral election that was delayed over one year due to horse-trading allegations and litigations. Ranchi will elect new mayor for the municipal corporation on Monday whereas the candidates in poll fray were occupied with last minute strategy to pull voters in their favour.
Polling parties with election material will take their respective positions from 7am on Monday and will be there till 5pm to help voters elect the next mayor of Ranchi Municipal Corporation. A day before polls, the district administration distributed election materials to polling officials and by late evening all polling parties were despatched to their respective polling stations with security personnel.
“Preparations for the polling day are complete,” said Deputy Election Commissioner Anil Kumar. As many as 100 mini buses and 90 big ones are being used in the election process whereas the administration has kept a reserve of 10 buses to meet the shortfall if any.
Polling stations were equally abuzz with activities related to mayoral election. All polling stations have been cleaned, chairs and tables placed at convenient locations, sealed electronic voting machines reached at all polling booths by evening as the district administration left no stone unturned to ensure timely and foolproof arrangement for conducting polls.
District police are all geared up to ensure free and fair elections. As many as 2,500 police personnel -- including constables and officers -- will be deployed at polling stations throughout the voting period. Depending on the sensitiveness of a polling booth the deployment formula will be 1:4 (one officer per four constables) at normal booths whereas 2:8 (two officers per eight constables) at sensitive booths. Besides, all police station in-charge have been asked to remain vigilant and be ready with police forces.
“We have also planned deployment of 2:12 and about 20 police personnel at some booths. We have sufficient force to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections,” said City SP Anup Birthare.
Moreover, two quick-response-teams (QRTs) will be ready to respond as and when required, 29 zonal magistrates and 90 sector magistrates will keep a close watch on election process.
Meanwhile, candidates in the poll fray burned midnight oil to prepare an effective polling day strategy. For the entire day candidates and their team focussed on booth management and emphasised on better coordination among booth level agents.
“Our agents will act as facilitators to voters and irrespective of affiliations to a particular candidate we will try to convince those who shun their voting rights to take part in the process to elect whoever they think is the right person for the post,” said Navin Prakash lakra.
On the other hand the BJP-backed candidate visited door-to-door making a last-ditch effort to win the race to the post of Mayor of the municipal body. Similarly, the AJSU-backed candidate also campaigned door-to-door to convince voters about her ability to lead Ranchi on the path of development as Mayor of RMC.
“I am relying on door-to-door visit to appeal voters. This is my strategy and nothing else,” maintained Asha lakra.