Imphal, Feb. 14 : Five companies of central paramilitary forces and unarmed police personnel would be engaged in all polling stations in Konthoujam Assembly constituency tomorrow, to ensure smooth conduct of byelections.
The constituency in Imphal West has 28 polling stations and all of them are categorised sensitive. Of these, 11 are categorised hypersensitive.
An official source said five companies of paramilitary forces would be pressed into service to ensure free and fair elections.
Two sections (with 10 personnel each) of paramilitary forces would be provided for each hypersensitive polling station, while single sections would guard each of the sensitive polling stations.
In addition to this, three unarmed homeguards personnel would also be deployed at each polling station.
“We have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure free and smooth conduct of the polls. We are anticipating some trouble during the polling tomorrow, though it may not be on a large scale,” the source said.
Three candidates are in the fray. Congress candidate Sapam Ranjan, son of the sitting Speaker Sapam Bhudichandra, whose demise necessitated the bypoll, is pitted against Trinamul Congress’s Konthoujam Sarat Singh, who finished second in the 2005 Assembly elections. The third candidate is an Independent — Khangembam Ranjit.
Tension is already building up in the constituency with Trinamul Congress leaders complaining yesterday that Congress workers had pulled down flags of their candidate.
The main contenders, Congress and Trinamul, are taking the bypolls very seriously, as the result would be an indicator of the shape of things to come in the upcoming state Assembly elections.
Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh is well aware of the fact that the entire state is keenly observing the results of the byelection and to ensure victory for his party’s candidate he has assigned all his 11 ministers to different areas in the constituency to oversee campaigning.
Ibobi Singh would be completing the second term by February next, and would be running for the third consecutive term in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
The Ibobi Singh government is backed by the CPI, which is not contesting the byelection. CPI cadres are expected to divide their votes among all the three candidates.
The primary Opposition party in the state Assembly, the Manipur Peoples Party and the BJP are backing the Trinamul candidate, while independent candidate has CPM and JD(U) backing.
Altogether 24,601 voters, including 12,476 female voters, would exercise their franchise in the bypoll.
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