elaborate security for Nagar Nigam, Mayors polling in UP tomorrow

Lucknow, Oct 30 (UNI) Elaborate security arrangements have been made for tomorrow's crucial Nagar Nigam and Mayors election in Uttar Pradesh with political parties going all out to show their supremacy before the next year's assembly polls.

Polling for 11 Nagar Nigams (corporations) along with same number of Mayor posts will be held in the second phase of elections for the urban local bodies in the state. Polling for Nagar Palika Parishads (municipalities) in 14 districts of Eastern UP would also be held tomorrow as it could not be done in the first phase on October 28 following the 'Chhath' festival.

State Election Commissioner Aparmita Prasad Singh told UNI here today that all preparation were in place for fair and free polls while adequate security arrangements have been made to prevent any violence.

In the first phase of polling on October 28, large scale violence was reported in western UP with one death.

Altogether 5 companies of central forces accompanied with over 100 companies of PAC and 85,000 strong home guard along with district police would ensure a free and fair polling which has been termed as semi-final for all political parties before the assembly polls next year.

Except for Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam, polling for rest 11 Nagar Nigams--Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra, Aligarh, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Jhansi, Bareilly and Moradabad-- will be held on Tuesday. Polling for the Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam will be held in the third phase on November 3.

Meanwhile, the SEC has ordered re-polling in 72 booths of 12 districts in the Nagar Palika Parishad polls which were held in the first phase on Saturday last.

The Commission has also ordered re-polling on such booths where polling percentage would be 85 per cent or more than that following large scale complaints of booth capturing or rigging.

Electioneering for the Nagar Nigams was an electrifying affair with BJP roping-in former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, party president Rajnath Singh along with hosts of senior leaders to campaign for their mayoral candidates.

Cine-star Jaya Prada of the ruling Samajwadi Party, Congress leaders Salman Khurshid, Union Ministers Akhilesh Das and SriPrakash Jaiswal were among the others to jump in the campaigning for their respective candidates. In this local bodies polls, except for the Bahujan Samaj Party, all other major political parties have fielded their candidates in all the mayor and ward members seats.

SEC had banned entry of all ministers, Members of Parliament and legislators in their respective constitutencies in order to conduct free and fair polls.

In its directive issued to all district authorities, the SEC has asked them to ensure no minister, MP and legislator was allowed to stay in their respective constitutencies or home districts after the end of the campaign deadline.The order would be effective for the former ministers, MPs and legisalators also.

Altogether over 9.1 million electorate would exercise their franchise in 9246 booths to elect 900 ward members in 11 Nagar Nigams.

Polling in Nagar Palika Parishads in 14 districts in the four divisions of Azamgarh, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Mirzapur will be held alongwith second phase tomorrow.

Election in the last phase for the nagar panchayat (town area) will be held on November 3. Counting of votes for all the phases will be one on November 6.

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