Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 19: Stage was set for fifth and final phase of voting in 20 Assembly segments of Jammu, Rajouri and Kathua districts tomorrow amidst tight security arrangements with deployment of 400 additional para-military companies and alert all along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) to thwart any possibility of terror attack. Tomorrow’s polling will complete election process in all 87 constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir, the counting for which will be taken up on December 23 simultaneously.
Director General of Police (DGP) K Rajendra told the Excelsior after high level review of security preparedness for last phase of polling that Army and BSF have been put on high alert on the LoC and IB as 11 constituencies out of 20 that will go to vote tomorrow have their areas falling along the borders. A Contingency Plan was in place for the polling stations falling within firing range at LoC and IB, he said, adding “we will ensure free, fair and smooth polling in last phase also like previous four phases”.
“About 400 companies of para-military forces apart from Armed Police, Indian Reserve Police and Jammu and Kashmir Police have taken positions at all 2366 polling stations of 20 constituencies and other vulnerable areas of three districts. The borders of Jammu with Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have been sealed and every vehicle entering the State from Lakhanpur, the gateway of the State, was being subjected to frisking,” Rajendra said.
He added that Army and BSF have strengthened their positions along LoC and IB to ensure that there was no infiltration by the militants to disrupt the elections. Police was maintaining high alert in the border police stations and posts in all three districts.
Official sources said polling parties along with the EVMs have been dispatched to all polling stations and they will reach there by tonight. Polling will be held from 8 am to 4 pm. About 18.28 lakh electorates would decide fate of 213 candidates in tomorrow’s polling including five sitting Ministers, several former Ministers, sitting legislators, former Members of Parliament (MPs) and bigwigs of various political parties.
The constituencies going to polls tomorrow included Bani, Basohli, Billawar, Kathua and Hiranagar (Reserve), all in Kathua district, Bishnah, Suchetgarh, RS Pura (Reserve), Nagrota, City East, City West, Gandhi Nagar, Marh, Raipur Domana (Reserve), Akhnoor and Chhamb (Reserve), all in Jammu district, Kalakote, Nowshera, Darhal and Rajouri, all in Rajouri district.
Fortunes of NC’s provincial president and former Political Advisor to Chief Minister Devender Rana (Nagrota) and his party colleague and Planning Minister Ajay Sadhotra (Marh), BJP’s bigwigs including Dr Nirmal Singh (Billawar), Kavinder Gupta (Gandhi Nagar), Ashwani Sharma (Bishnah), Sham Choudhary (Suchetgarh), Talib Hussain (Rajouri), Sat Sharma CA (Jammu West) and Ravinder Raina (Nowshera), Congress Ministers Tara Chand (Chhamb), Sham Lal Sharma (Akhnoor), Raman Bhalla (Gandhi Nagar) and Dr Manohar Lal Sharma (Billawar) were at stake in tomorrow’s polling.
After a record voter turnout in the previous four phases including Kashmir Valley, there are expectations of a high voter turnout in all three districts of Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri tomorrow.
Unfazed by the November 27 militant attack in Arnia border belt of Jammu district in which 12 people including five civilians and four militants were killed, high-pitched campaigning continued till last evening.
“Security grid along the Indo-Pak border has been put on alert. Multi-tier security has been put in place,” sources said.
A contingency plan has also been drawn in case any firing takes place from the Pakistan side during the polling tomorrow and alternative polling stations have been set up for such a case, they said.
BJP has high stakes in this phase as of the 20 seats going to polls as it holds 11 seats followed by Congress 5, NC 2, PDP and Independent one each.
The saffron party fired up its campaigning with all top guns led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Smriti Irani, Uma Bharati, J P Nadda, Jitendra Singh and star campaigners Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Preeti Sapru wooing the voters. BJP president Amit Shah couldn’t campaign on December 17 as he was suffering from viral.
Modi addressed four rallies in Rajouri, Jammu, Billawar and Kathua Assembly segments in last phase of polling and appealed to the people to give BJP a majority to develop the State and oust “dynastic” rule of NC, PDP and Congress.
Senior leaders of all parties campaigned for their candidates. Among the prominent campaigners were Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, his predecessors Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP’s Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti.
Deputy Chief Minister and Congress candidate Tara Chand, who won the Chhamb seat in Jammu in 1996, 2002 and 2008 is fighting to retain the seat this time again.
Besides, Congress candidate from Akhnoor and Minister Sham Lal Sharma is looking at scoring a hat-trick.
Another Congress Minister Raman Bhalla is also looking at repeating his victory of 2002 and 2008 in Gandhi Nagar seat.
Congress Minister Manohar Lal Sharma is engaged in a direct fight with BJP at Billawar in Kathua district.
Sitting minister of National Conference Ajay Sadhotra will take on BJP’s Sukhnandan and Balwan Singh of Congress in Marh Assembly segment among others.
Besides, two-time MP and former Minister Lal Singh, who jumped ships from Congress to BJP, is contesting from Basohli seat. Similarly, former NC MP Talib Hussain is trying his luck on a BJP ticket from Rajouri segment.
NC candidate for Nagrota Devender Singh Rana, who is close to Omar Abdullah, will face his maiden contest with another first timer Nand Kishore Sharma (BJP), Shivdev Singh (Nagrota), Rakesh Wazir (BSP) and Hussain Ali Wafa (PDP) among others.
The election official said in Bani Assembly constituency 11 candidates are in the fray, in Basohli 12, Kathua 15, Billawar 8, Hiranagar 8, Nagrota 11, Gandhi Nagar 11, Jammu East 9, Jammu West 15, Bishnah 10, R S Pura 11, Suchetgarh 12, Marh 9, Raipur Domana 11, Akhnoor 8, Chhamb 10, Nowshera 11, Darhal 11, Rajouri 13, Kalakote 7.
As many as 250 polling stations have been declared hyper-sensitive and 366 as sensitive in 20 Assembly segments of three bordering districts of Kathua, Jammu and Rajouri, sources said.
Adequate arrangements have been made in all 11 Assembly constituencies across Jammu district wherein 1229 polling stations have been established including the bordering belts, sources said.
They said out of the total number of polling stations, 55 have been declared as hyper-sensitive and 206 as sensitive while identified critical polling stations in the bordering belts are 135.
In all 645 polling stations had been set up in five Assembly constituencies of Kathua district where 160 have been declared as sensitive and 27 as hyper-sensitive.
“In the bordering areas, 23 polling stations have been identified as critical and they can be shifted in case of any kind of eventuality,” they said and added that the polling parties escorted by the security personnel have been dispatched to the respective polling stations for tomorrow’s election process.
Sources said all necessary arrangements for peaceful, fair, free and smooth conduct of polling process have been completed for four Assembly constituencies of Rajouri district.
“We have identified 168 hyper sensitive polling booths out of which 65 are situated in Darhal constituency and 53 in Rajouri constituency,” sources said, adding that violence was noticed at some hyper sensitive polling stations in Darhal constituency during 2008 Assembly elections but this time tight security arrangements have been made across the region to avoid any untoward like incident.
As per reports out of 517 polling stations established in Rajouri district, 168 are hyper sensitive 215 are sensitive and 134 are normal.
Hyper-sensitive booths include three in Nowshera, 65 in Darhal, 53 in Rajouri and 47 in Kalakote constituencies.
Sources said Central Police Forces (CPFs) had already been deployed in and around the polling stations who would be assisted by the local police.
They said about 300 anti-social elements had already been detained and about 2000 licensed weapons have been surrendered by the people so far.
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