At last, the day of voters has come to decide the fate of the leaders (255+13=268) in the present bye-elections in 12 districts. The polling would be held on June 12, i.e on Tuesday, in 18 Assembly constituencies and one Lok Sabha constituency in the state.
It may be recalled that the bye-elections were necessitated due to the resignation and disqualification of 17 Congress MLAs and one PRP MLA and one MP, who were staunch supporters of YSRCP Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer Bhanvar Lal, elaborate arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of bye-elections. The polling would start in the morning at 8 and will continue till 5 PM at 5413 polling booths. The Election Commission has identified 3200 polling booths as problematic booths and deployed heavy police force to face any untoward incident.
According to election commission, 255 members were in the fray for the 18 Legislative Assembly constituencies and 13 members were competing for single Lok Sabha seat of Nellore. About 46 lakh voters were going to exercise their right of casting vote. About 50,000 police personal were rendering their services to the ongoing bye-polls. As part of security measurements, the election commission has been using the services of 140 central para military forces, in the places where the bye-elections were going on.
The election commission has seized 3377 weapons, Rs.41.93 crores in cash, gold and silver worth Rs.12.72 crores and 192647 liters of liquor by end of Sunday. The commission had also closed 3390 liquor belt shops and detained 4978 persons as a precautionary measure. Bhanvar Lal said that the commission would receive complaints from the voters, and four mobile numbers were allotted for this purpose. He also revealed that about two lakh new voters enrolled their names from April 27 to May 27. He revealed that the commission has arranged websites in the polling stations for the live telecast. He said that liquor shops were already closed from Sunday evening to June 12 evening. The commission also made arrangements to see that there would not be any liquor sales within five kilometers area from the polling stations.
DGP Dinesh Reddy said that all security measures have been taken to conduct smooth polling. The police department has identified 3000 polling stations as problematic and 93 polling stations as naxal influenced areas. The police department has deployed 56 APPSC companies, 3000 constables, 1500 homeguards and 2000 inspectors in the areas where the elections were going on. The police also arranged 270 check posts by deploying 100 companies special police force. He said that the department had information that there would be attacks after the counting , and hence it would be alert even after the counting. (NSS)