Mandu by-election today!

Vijay Deo Jha/Pranav Pratyush

Ranchi

State Government and Hazaribagh district administration are all set to hold a peaceful by-election of the Mandu assembly constituency on Wednesday. To counter any security threats enough security arrangements have been made including deployment of 32 companies of Central Para Military Forces (CPMF).

Informing about the security preparation Hazaribagh SP Pankaj Kamboj said that four times the number of companies of different wings of the State police forces will be deployed during the election.

“We have decided to deploy a minimum of 20 static forces against each booth. Special security measures and deployment will be made in the naxal affected areas like Vishugarh and Churchu,” he said. Heavy deployment of the forces has been made in the area around the Jhumra Hill affected by the Maoist.

Sources in the government said that the around 70 per cent booths in Vishugarh have been declared as highly sensitive while 100 per cent booths under Churchu have been declared highly sensitive.

Polling will be held at 400 booths out of which 152 have been declared highly sensitive.  A total of 298460 voters will take part in the polling out of which 1,35,940 are women. 

The Election Commission of India has deployed 95 micro observers whereas 400 control units of the EVM will be used during the polling. To conduct polling 4500 officials and employees of the government have been deployed.

The emerging poll scenario, according to sources, indicates that JMM candidate Jai Prakash Bhai Patel and JVM (P) candidate Manish Jaisawal are the major contenders in the fray. Nevertheless, all political parties including Congress and JD (U) and CPI (ML) have left no stone unturned to woo the voters of the constituency.

The Mandu Assembly seat became vacant after death of senior JMM leader Teklal Mahto in September this year.

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