The Hindu : Front Page : All set for Phase IV poll today

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Thursday, May 07, 2009
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All set for Phase IV poll today

J. Balaji

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has put “all arrangements in place” for the penultimate and Phase-IV of the Lok Sabha elections, covering 85 constituencies in seven States and the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, on Thursday.

In most places the polling staff reached their place of work on Wednesday evening. They reached some naxal/trouble-prone areas by Tuesday night itself.

Besides 252 Central observers, the Commission has sent 13 additional observers to West Bengal, two to Bihar and one to Uttar Pradesh.

Tight security is in place in about 3,650 stations in the partly naxal-infested areas of Nalanda and Pataliputra constituencies in Bihar. In Srinagar, alert CRPF jawans detected and defused a powerful improvised explosive device kept in a gas cylinder outside the main gate of the Jamia Masjid in the city on Wednesday. Srinagar goes to the polls on Thursday.

Altogether 1315 contestants, including 119 women, are in fray; prominent among them include BJP president Rajnath Singh (contesting from Ghaziabad), External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee (Jangipur), RJD president Lalu Prasad (Pataliputra), Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh (Mainpuri), Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh (Baghpat), and the former Chief Ministers, Kalyan Singh (independent from Etah), Farooq Abdullah (Srinagar) and Bhajan Lal (Hissar). Mr. Prasad contested from Saran too where poll was held on April 16.

Phase IV will cover Haryana, for 10 seats, Rajasthan (25), Punjab (4), West Bengal (17), Bihar (3), Jammu and Kashmir (1), Uttar Pradesh (18); and NCT of Delhi (7).

By Wednesday, elections will be completed in 457 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats where polls are being held.

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