BENGALURU: If you are a voter in any of the 15 assembly constituencies which are going to polls on Thursday, get ready to cast your vote. And if you want to buy liquor in any district of which the assembly constituencies are part, then do it by 6 pm on Tuesday.The Election Commission has geared up to hold polling in the legislative assembly constituencies, necessitated following the disqualification of ‘rebel’ MLAs.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjeev Kumar said the commission made all arrangements to ensure smooth and peaceful polling. “There are a total of 37,82,681 voters on the final rolls. All arrangements have been made to ensure smooth conduct of the polls,” he said.
The district magistrates of the 15 constituencies would issue orders under section 144 of the CrPC and it was specifically clarified that it would not restrict house-to-house campaigning in the run up to polling, he said.
“The presence of political functionaries and party workers who have been brought from outside the constituency and who are not voters of the constituency must not stay in constituency after the campaign period ends at 6 pm on Tuesday. Also, dry days have been declared from 6 pm on Tuesday till midnight of the polling day in the districts where elections are being held”, he said. This would also be in force upto 5 km beyond the boundaries of the constituencies.
There are a total of 4,185 polling stations in the 15 constituencies and 884 of them are critical. “As many 414 stations will be covered by 45 companies of the Central Armed Police Force and 805 stations by micro observers. Web cameras are installed at 206 stations, while, videographers will cover 259 stations,” he said, adding that a total 42,509 personnel have been deployed for election duty, including 2,511 of the CAPF and 11,241 policemen.
City police ready
The city police have made security arrangements in Bengaluru where KR Puram, Yeshwanthpur, Mahalakshmi Layout and Shivajinagar constituencies will go to polls. City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said 2,896 local police personnel would be deployed for election security, apart from Central Armed Police Force, Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve and Rapid Action Force. The security responsibilities were assigned to deputy commissioners of police and additional commissioners concerned, he said.
“There are 1,064 polling booths and we identified 238 booths as hyper sensitive. One constable is deployed in each booth and two constables in hyper-sensitive booths”, he said.
Till now, a total cash of Rs 15.92 lakh has been seized, Rao added.
FIR AGAINST BSY
CEO Sanjeev Kumar said that total 197 FIRs were registered after the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into force. “48 of them are related to complaints of violation of MCC. They also include an FIR against the Chief Minister,” he said.
Police strength
DCPs-7,
ACPs-14,
Inspectors-30,
PSIs-68,
ASIs-160,
Head-constables-1,666,
Home-guards-951,
CAPF-10 batalition,
KSRP-38 battalion,
CAR- 40 battalion,
RPF-4 battalion and QRT-3 teams.