By PTI
NEW DELHI: About 50,000 CAPF troops are being mobilised for providing security during the forthcoming assembly polls in five states, with the major chunk of them being sent to Uttar Pradesh that has the highest number of 403 seats and the longest polling period with seven phases, official sources said.
The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday announced the poll schedule for elections to the assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.
While Uttar Pradesh will vote in seven phases beginning February 10, Punjab (117 seats), Uttarakhand (70 seats) and Goa (40 seats) will have single-day voting on February 14, while the 60 seat Manipur electorate will vote in two phases.
The counting of votes for all the states will take place on March 10.
Officials in the security establishment told PTI that just over 500 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) like the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB are being mobilised in the initial phase, and at least 100-150 more such units could be added in the coming days.
As many as 375 out of these 500 CAPF companies will be sent to Uttar Pradesh, they said.
A senior Uttar Pradesh police officer said 150 CAPF companies have already been earmarked for the respective districts and will start taking position by January 10 with the objective of conducting elections in a fair and efficient manner.
A CAPF company has an operational strength of around 70-80 personnel.
The CAPF personnel will not only carry out ‘area domination’ exercises in these election-bound states, but also man the polling booths which have been increased by a total of about 16 per cent from the last polls, to over 2.15 lakh centres this time keeping COVID-19 distancing protocols in mind.
A polling booth will have a maximum of 1,250 voters as compared to the 1,500 electors prevalent earlier, the EC said.
In all, elections will be held for 690 assembly seats in these five states, and 18.3 crore people, including 8.55 crore women, will be eligible to cast their votes.
