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Security beefed up ahead of Indian polls
April 6, 2014, 7:33 am

Supporters of India's right wing nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in Hiranagar 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Jammu, India, Wednesday, March 26, 2014 [AP]

Supporters of India’s right wing nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in Hiranagar 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Jammu, India, Wednesday, March 26, 2014 [AP]

As India gears up for general elections that begin on Monday, more than two hundred thousand gun-toting paramilitary personnel, thousands of security vehicles and nearly a dozen helicopters are being deployed across the country to ensure security.

Tomorrow’s polling will cover six constituencies in two Indian states.

“It is a massive exercise. But we will ensure peaceful polling. We are also taking special measures for Naxal — affected states, Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast,” joint secretary in the Indian Home Ministry, MA Ganapathy said earlier.

Polling to elect 543 members to the Lok Sabha will be spread over nine days, between April 7 and May 12.

The Indian Home Ministry will press into service more than 100 trains to transport paramilitary forces for deployment during the elections.

The Indian Election Commission has said that 814 million voters will be eligible to cast their ballots this year.

Over 23 million voters in the 18-19 years age group have been added to the electoral rolls, constituting 2.88 per cent of the electorate, up from 0.75 per cent in the last elections.

As the world’s largest democracy heads to the polls, India’s often baffling contradictions are on full display, with caste, community divisions still being factored in the poll battle.

First-timers who have jumped into the electoral fray this year range from one of the richest candidates, billionaire Infosys co-founder and head of Aadhar, India’s unique identity recognition program, Nandan Nilekani in Bangalore and at the other end of the spectrum, one of the poorest candidates tribal activist Soni Sori in the Bastar constituency of the eastern Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

 

 TBP