The district police have arrested two Maoist action team members, along with two dalam members and six members of local militia, on Monday, and thwarted their plan to disrupt the elections to be held on Wednesday, District Superintendent of Police Vikram Jeet Duggal has said.
The police also seized some weapons from the extremists who were picked up in the region between Pedabayulu and Paderu, he said here on Tuesday, refusing to divulge the details.
“There has been no major movement of Maoists in the last couple of days and the district police are working in tandem with those in the neighbouring districts in Odisha to ensure the Maoists do not enforce their call for poll boycott in the Agency areas,” the SP said.
“There is a possibility of minor incidents by some action teams in the Agency area as it would be difficult to identify such small teams,” he said.
The Central Armed Police Force had also been deployed in all the Maoist-prone pockets to help the police in establishing a conducive atmosphere for people to go out and vote in the Agency areas, he said.
There are two Air Force helicopters on standby in Visakhapatnam for immediate movement of the police force in case of any eventuality. An air ambulance is also stationed here on standby.
The election officials have drawn up a plan in consultation with the police to deploy polling staff at polling stations in the district. Additional police forces have been deployed in polling stations that have been identified as critical and hyper-critical in the district.
Assuring the people that the police were out in full strength and equipped to face any eventuality, Mr. Vikram urged the people to come out in large numbers and vote without fear.
In view of high percentage of polling in the Agency areas in the local body elections, the district police were expecting a good turnout in the general elections too, he said.
