NEW DELHI: A battle royal between the Congress (I) and the Janata Dal and its allies began Tuesday as 213.7 million voters went to polls to elect their representatives for the assemblies of eight Indian states and the union territory of Pondicherry.
There are 21,265 candidates vying for 1611 seats in Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, and Rajasthan besides Pondicherry. Of them 12,009 are independents (According to first report over 90 people died in pre-poll violence in Bihar alone on Sunday).
Polling has been countermanded for the Tizara constituency in Rajasthan and Damoh, Madhya Pradesh following the death of an independent and a Congress-I nominee respectively.
Elections will be held for Bharmour, Kinnaur and Lahaul Spiti constituencies of Himachal Pradesh in June, as they remain snow bound till May. In Arunachal Pradesh, three Congress-I candidates have already been declared elected unopposed.
Three Lok Sabha and seven assembly constituencies, where polling had been countermanded, will also go to polls Tuesday along with two parliamentary and 10 assembly seats where byelections will be held.
Authorities have taken elaborate measures to ensure peaceful polling and to prevent booth capturing. Special steps have been taken in Bihar, where poll violence and booth capturing have been rules rather than Continued on Page 6 exceptions. In booths identified as “‘sensitive” extra security has been provided.
Of more than 500 central security forces on poll duty, 210 have sent to the eastern Indian state of Bihar alone. Over 50,000 rifles have been airlifted to state capital Patna to arm local police personnel on poll duty.
The state administration has also moved in with an iron hand, issuing shoot at sight orders in the state capital to prevent booth capturing and snatching of ballot papers.
The entire Patna region has been put under a security blanket with 39 companies of paramilitary forces taking up position in the district besides large number of local policemen, home guards and members of village voluntary force. Movement of two and three wheelers banned on Election Day, however, journalists and doctors are exempted from the ban.
The election commission has also taken measures to ensure that those who indulged in unfair practices in the polls did not go unpunished,
In a communication to chief electoral officers of the states, the commission said all possible preventive measures should be taken to prevent booth capture and if, despite such measures, incidents took place reports should be sent to the returning officer or superior authorities and proper first information reports lodged.
The commission directed concerned officials to maintain proper records of the incidents as it would help the investigation cells to be set up after the polls to inquire into all such cases.
A keen tussle for the eight states between the congress-I the ruling party in all the eight states and the union territory of Pondicherry, trying to retain its control over them, and the Janta Dal and its allies to repeat.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 2, 1990
