UP elections: Over 1 lakh cops, home-guards, 800 CAPF companies deployed in 1st phase

Noida, Feb 10: Over one lakh personnel of the Uttar Pradesh police and home guards besides 800 companies of paramilitary were deployed for the first phase of assembly polls in western Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, according to officials.

As many as 623 candidates, including 73 women, are in the fray in the first phase with around 2.28 crore voters -- 1.24 crore men and 1.04 crore women, state Election Commission officials said. According to a UP police statement, 800 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) were received by the state for the first phase of polls.

A CAPF company has an operational strength of around 70-80 personnel. Of these, 724 companies were for booth duty, 15 companies for strong-room duty, five companies for EVM security, 26 companies for quick response at police stations, 20 companies for inter-state barrier duty, 66 companies for law and order duty, and nine companies were attached with flying squad team, it said.

A total of 796 companies of CAPF were deployed and the rest kept in reserve, it said. "Similarly, in the first phase, duties of 9,464 inspectors/sub-inspectors of UP Police, 59,030 head constables and constables along with 27 companies of PAC, 48,136 home guards, 505 PRD jawans and 6,061 chowkidars were engaged in election duty," it stated. In the first phase, voting was held under 241 police station areas in the 11 districts of Agra, Mathura, Aligarh, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Baghpat, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Gautam Buddh Nagar. Voting was held in 58 assembly seats at 10,833 polling stations and 25,880 polling centres, it said.

The police said 12 assembly constituencies -- Khairagarh, Fatehabad, Agra South, Bah, Chhatra, Mathura, Sardhana, Meerut city, Chhaprauli, Baraut, Baghpat and Kairana - were categorized as "sensitive". Another 898 majras and localities were marked as "vulnerable", while 5,535 polling places were considered "critical", the police said.

In the first phase, according to the instructions of the EC, a total of 138 Pink Booths (women booths) were set up where 59 women inspectors/sub-inspectors and 261 women constables/head constables were deployed, it said. From the day the model code of conduct came into force in 11 districts of the first phase, a total of 1,60,237 licensed weapons were deposited with the police, while 151 licensed weapons were seized, it said.

Also, 441 arms licenses were cancelled in view of the possibility of breach of peace during the election, the police said. Preventive action under CrPC sections 107/116 was taken against 3,98,432 persons, the police added. A total 1,783 illegal arms, 2,048 cartridges and 20 kg explosives were recovered, it said. Till now, a total of Rs 12.45 crore had been caught during checking in the run up to polls, while illegal liquor worth Rs 7.83 crore and narcotics worth Rs 7.89 crore was also seized, according to the police. PTI