2,923 polling stations identified as 'vulnerable', 82 'critical' in Haryana

As many as 2,923 polling stations in Haryana have been identified as 'vulnerable' and 83 as 'critical', a top police official said on Wednesday.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Navdeep Singh Virk said elaborate security arrangements are being made for peaceful and incident-free polling.

Assembly elections in Haryana will take place on October 21. The last day for filing nomination is October 4. The final results will be declared on October 24 after counting of votes.

"Civil administration and police authorities in Haryana, after a detailed joint exercise, have identified 83 polling stations in 60 locations as 'critical' and 2,923 polling stations in 1,419 locations as 'vulnerable' for the forthcoming Assembly polls.

"All such polling stations would be covered by either deployment of Central Paramilitary Forces, micro observers, webcasting etc or a combination of these," Virk said in a statement.

'Critical' and 'vulnerable' refers to polling booths where the Election Commission thinks voters can be influenced by outside factors, an official explained.

Elaborating about critical polling stations, Virk said the Kurukshetra district has the maximum 14 polling booths followed by 10 each in Hisar and Palwal, seven each in Mewat, Hansi, Sirsa and Panipat, five each in Jind and Bhiwani, three each in Yamunanagar and Dadri, two in Mahendergarh and one each in Gurugram and Kaithal.

He said among the 'vulnerable' polling stations, Mewat district has the maximum 342 booths followed by Gurugram, Sirsa and Jhajjar with the 308, 292 and 254 respectively.

Other polling stations identified as vulnerable include 199 in Faridabad, 143 in Panipat, 142 in Ambala, 141 each in Rohtak and Fatehabad, 119 in Kurukshetra, 98 in Panchkula, 78 in Yamunanagar, 29 in kaithal, 24 in Karnal, 64 in Sonipat, 29 in Jind, 49 in Hisar, 46 in Hansi, 85 in Bhiwani, 91 in Dadri, 107 in Mahendergarh, 60 in Rewari and 82 in Palwal, he said.

The state has a total of around 19,500 polling stations in 10,309 locations, Virk said.

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which has 48 members in the House, has set a target of winning over 75 seats.