Police deployment till Monday

June 03, 2012 02:52 pm | Updated 02:52 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

One of the three policemen who were asked by the authorities to leave the polling booth at the Valiyavila LPS in Neyyattinkara following complaints that they were canvassing votes for a particular political party during the by-poll onSaturday. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

One of the three policemen who were asked by the authorities to leave the polling booth at the Valiyavila LPS in Neyyattinkara following complaints that they were canvassing votes for a particular political party during the by-poll onSaturday. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

No major incident of violence was reported during the polling for the by-elections in the Neyyatinkara Legislative Assembly constituency till 8 p.m. on Saturday.

However, the police were yet to fully scale down their deployment to pre-empt any possible post-poll violence in the constituency.

At Chaitkottukonam, near Perumbazhuthoor, the police detained 20 local residents on the charge of attempting to prevent their neighbours from exercising their franchise. Earlier, the group had given a call in the locality to boycott the elections in protest against the alleged failure of successive governments to repair a local road.

The police later granted bail to the detained persons. They said they had to intervene in several localities to prevent clashes between opposing political activists.

The police also had to deal with allegations of political parties transporting voters in considerable numbers in private vehicles to booths and polling stations. They also removed several posters and loudspeakers found in the vicinity of polling stations and booths. No form of campaigning or lobbying for votes was allowed anywhere in the immediate vicinity of polling centres.

The police also received several anonymous calls accusing various political parties of serving liquor free to voters to influence their choice. However, the calls proved to be hoax ones, according to the police.

The State police had deployed 2,300 policemen and women to maintain peace on polling day. Two armed platoons of the Central Industrial Security Force were kept in reserve to support the local law enforcement if the need arose.

The police pickets in 37 localities in the constituency would continue till Monday. A senior official said there would be no let-up in night patrolling and random checking of vehicles for arms and explosives.

The border areas of the constituency with Tamil Nadu were also under police watch. The police said they would withdraw additional forces in a phased manner in the next few days.

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