About 837 polling stns designated ‘critical’
Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has designated 837 polling stations (PS), constituting nearly 15 per cent of the total 5814 PSs as ‘critical’ for the first phase of elections on April 19.
About 1342 polling stations, amounting to 25 per cent of the 5298 booths have been marked as ‘highly sensitive’ by the poll panel for the second phase of polls.
Sources within the commission have identified Raiganj, where over 500 among 1730 polling booths nearly 30 per cent as the ‘most sensitive constituency’ among the six constituencies scheduled for polling in the initial and subsequent phases of the election.
Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri will go for polls on April 19 – in the first phase while Raiganj, Balurghat and Darjeeling Parliamentary constituencies will witness voting on April 26, in the second phase.
According to sources in the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Jalpaiguri leads the list of critical polling stations in the first phase with 382 out of 1904 polling stations.
Cooch Behar is second in this list having 196 out of 2043 polling stations as highly sensitive. Alipurduar has 159 out of its 1867 PSs as critical.
For the second phase, 452 out of 1999 (22.61 per cent) polling stations in Darjeeling are critical while in Balurghat 382 out of 1569 that accounts for 24.34 per cent are critical.
“We are implementing special security measures through the use of technology as well as commissioning of additional Central forces to thoroughly secure all these booths and prevent any untoward incidents during the election,“ a senior official in the ECI said.
The sensitivity rating of these booths is determined based on incidents occurring in the last three elections, including two Assembly polls and one Lok Sabha election.
The Commission will deploy 272 companies of central forces to conduct the second phase of elections in the three PCs.
There will be 184 companies for North and South Dinajpur while Darjeeling will have 88- 51 for Darjeeling, 21 for Siliguri Commissionerate (under Darjeeling PC) and 16 for Kalimpong (under Darjeeling PC).
The constituencies of the second phase of elections will cover three districts – South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur, Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
The Commission will be deploying 263 companies of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) to guard all 5814 polling stations and 4 strong rooms and manage the Quick Response Team (QRT) that will be involved in the first phase of polls on April 19.
