By IANS,
New Delhi : Over 1,000 booths in Delhi are likely to be declared “sensitive” for the Nov 29 assembly election here – a four-fold increase over the last election in 2003, a senior election official said here Tuesday.
“We have entrusted Delhi Police to select these booths and the list is almost final. At least 10 percent of Delhi’s polling stations will be declared sensitive,” Satbir Silas Bedi, the chief electoral officer of Delhi, told IANS.
During the 2003 assembly election, Delhi had 211 sensitive polling stations and 29 others were declared hypersensitive. A polling station is declared sensitive or hypersensitive if there is reason to fear booth capturing or violence there.
A total of 10.7 million people, nearly 25 percent more than in 2003, will be eligible to vote across 11,000 booths this year to pick a new 70-member legislature in Delhi.
She said the Delhi electoral office has entrusted the task to Delhi Police and after finding the sensitive booths they will be sub-divided into communally sensitive booths, and those where bogus voting is expected.
“Past records of booths will also be taken into account,” Bedi said, adding that police, central paramilitary personnel and home guards will be pressed into duty as per the nature of the booth.
She said a formal announcement with further constituency wise details will be made soon.