Tight security for Ramtek by-poll tomorrow

Nagpur, Apr 7 (UNI) Tight security arrangements have been made for tomorrow's by-election from Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

Speaking to newspersons here this evening, Additional Collector and Returning Officer C S Dahalkar said a total of 2,500 security personnel would be deployed in the constituency to maintain law and order during polling. These included 1,600 personnel of the state police, 500 home guards, 200 forest guards and two companies (about 200 personnel) of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), he said.

Mr Dahalkar said there were a total of 11,72,818 voters in the constituency, including 6,14,390 males and 5,58,428 females.

The constituency includes five assembly segments in Nagpur district -- Umrer, Kalameshwar, Katol, Saoner and Ramtek, and one in the neighbouring Amravati district - Morshi, he said.

Polling would take place at 1,180 polling stations between 0700 hrs and 1700 hrs tomorrow, Mr Dahalkar said. Of these, 138 polling stations have been identified as sensitive, which include 21 in Umrer, four in Kalameshwar, 37 in Katol, 29 in Saoner and 40 in Ramtek, he said. Additional security arrangements would be made at each of these, he said.

A total of 6,052 officers and personnel would be deployed to conduct the polling, he added.

The by-election is being held because Subodh Mohite, who was elected in 2004 on a Shiv Sena ticket, resigned from the party and the House to join the Congress. He is now a nominee of the Congress in the by-poll. Although twelve candidates are in the fray in the constituency, the real fight is expected to be among Mr Mohite, Prakash Jadhav of the Shiv Sena and Congress rebel Ranjit Deshmukh who is contesting as an independent. The counting of votes will be taken up on April 12.

UNI