Moga assembly all set for polls tomorrow

Over a month of hectic campaigning and exchanges of diatribe by the ruling SAD and opposition Congress will culminate tomorrow as the Moga assembly is all set to witness a direct fight between the two parties in the bypoll.
During the campaigning, leaders of both the parties launched no holds barred attack on each other.
Although the Congress has lost the recently concluded Assembly polls in Punjab, the party has put all its efforts to defend the seat, which was vacated after one of its leader resigned.
Security arrangements were also reviewed today.
Inspector General of Police (Bathinda zone) Nirmal Singh Dhillon today held meetings with Moga SSP Ashish Chaudhary and commanding officers of para military forces.

He also held parleys with District Electoral Officer (DEO) Arshdeep Singh Thind and reviewed the security arrangements for peaceful, smooth and fair polling tomorrow, officials said here today.

A total 1,79,338 electorates will exercise their frannchise to elect one of the total ten candidates in the fray.
Moga assembly constituency have 84,796 female voters, officials said.
The hyper sensitive polling booths are 69, sensitive 90 and total polling booths are 188.
Meanwhile, paramilitary forces and Punjab police today jointly held flag marches in Moga town and in the rural areas to create confidence among the electorates.
The by-election was necessitated after Joginderpal Jain deserted the Congress to join SAD. He is seeking re-election against Vijay Kumar Sathi of Congress.

After the review meeting, Dhillon alongwith all senior officers also visited the sensitive as well as hypersensitive polling booths.
The IG claimed that the district administration was fully prepared for smooth, fair and free polling and ten companies of para military forces, four companies of Punjab Armed Forces besides 1,700 Punjab police personnel were deployed for maintaining peace.
"All the sensitive and hyper sensitive polling stations will be guarded by paramilitary forces," he said.
The IG said that he had directed the forces to ensure that all the officers on duty must act with neutrality while performing their duty honestly.

He also directed the forces' jawans, officials and police personnel that no one should be allowed to violate code of conduct and guidelines of Election Commission of India.