Telangana polls: Heightened security at over 500 polling stations in LWE affected areas

Hyderabad, Oct 30 (PTI) Security personnel will be deployed in additional numbers in over 500 polling stations in Left Wing Extremism-affected areas in Telangana bordering Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra to thwart any attempts to disrupt the November 30 Assembly elections in the state, officials said.

Election authorities, who are making all necessary arrangements to ensure free, fair and peaceful conduct of the polls, said 14 constituencies out of the 119 Assembly segments have been identified as sensitive to LWE.

Officials said there are about 511 polling stations which are identified as LWE affected in eight districts of Telangana bordering Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

"Accordingly, Central Armed Police Forces personnel will be deployed in additional numbers in those areas, in addition to the state police force. Area domination will primarily be the strategy," Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj told PTI.

Polling duration would be a little different in the LWE-affected areas compared to the others, he said.

"There will be more force deployment. In these polling stations it will be a minimum of one section of the CAPF along with the local force. The deployment of forces will be in addition to what is the normal scale in other areas," Vikas Raj said.

Asked if the authorities anticipated any threat or violence from Maoists, the CEO observed: "We have not had such incidents. So, I am quite hopeful nothing of that sort is going to happen. Of course the police is fully prepared and they are doing their intelligence-based activities and area domination so that there is no scope left from that point of view." Vikas Raj further said as many as 100 companies of central forces have arrived in the state till now and they have been deployed based on the requirement to the check posts and various teams and they are conducting flag marches.

"They have started making their presence felt," he pointed out.

He said about 10,000 of the 35,000-odd polling stations across the state have been identified as "critical." "This is a dynamic number and it may change based on how the situation unfolds closer to the election. The exercise to identify sensitive and hyper-sensitive constituencies is underway," the CEO added.

On the general preparations for the elections, the CEO said they were primarily focusing on statutory activities that lead up to the election.

"The Returning Officers are ready to receive nominations once the notification is issued. And, the requisite manpower like presiding officers and polling officers is also getting ready," he said.

"This time we are going to have Internet Protocol-based cameras in every check post and also with every flying squad so whatever is being done by them is watched centrally from the control room. We have invited the political parties to inspect the system and see for themselves how unbiased the entire process is," the CEO said.

On the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), he said the Commission has been focusing on enforcement since June and 21 departments of Central and state governments have been pressed into service. Focus areas have been defined for each department and they were working in close coordination. PTI VVK GDK SS