LS elections: Delhi Police finds 2,000 polling booths in city as 'critical'

Of the 13,500 polling booths in Delhi, police have so far identified around 2,000 as "critical" based on past cases as well as the probability of deterioration of the law-and-order situation and extra security personnel would be deployed there, officials said on Wednesday.

As many as 1.47 crore people are eligible to exercise their franchise at the seven Lok Sabha constituencies of the city where polling will be held on May 25.

Ahead of every election, police prepare a list of polling booths marked as "critical" based on multiple parameters. The Election Commission then takes a final call on the list.

In total, the city has around 13,500 polling booths which will be probably located at around 2,700 locations across Delhi.

"We have identified critical polling booths and polling stations in various districts of Delhi. We have already prepared a plan to deal with any kind of law-and-order situation," a senior police officer said.

The officer added that there is a set of criteria on which the sensitivity of a polling booth is decided. "We usually asses it from the law and order point of view."

According to data from different police districts, the New Delhi district has the least number of critical polling booths at five.

The southeast district police has prepared a list of 53 critical polling booths while the northeast district has earmarked 55 in that category.

Shahdara and northwest districts have prepared a list of 146 critical booths each. The Dwarka district has marked more than 50 booths as critical. There are 38 critical booths in the outer north district.

Sharing details about the deployment of security personnel, another senior police officer said each polling premises marked critical will have two head constables and half a section of central paramilitary forces in addition to the normal deployment plan of a polling station.

Last Thursday, Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora emphasised the need for proper coordination between the city police and Central Armed Police Forces to ensure smooth conduct of the coming general assembly elections.

Dependra Pathak, Special Commissioner of Police (Protective Security) shared the challenges before the police in ensuring full-proof VIP security and robust security arrangements during elections.