Besides the State police, over 500 companies of paramilitary forces, comprising 50,000 personnel, will be deployed to ensure free and fair elections to the State Legislative Assembly on May 5.
State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anil Kumar Jha told presspersons here on Thursday: “We require more paramilitary forces since it’s a single phase poll.” The Election Commission of India has convened a meeting with senior officials of the Home and Railway ministries in New Delhi on Friday to discuss the issue.
“We require more than 500 companies of paramilitary forces and the Centre will ensure adequate deployment of forces,” he said. Elections were held in three-phases in May 2008 while the Lok Sabha elections were held in two phases in 2009 in the State.
Enthusing voters
The CEO said a Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign would be conducted in the State to create awareness among the people to participate in the poll process, particularly in Bangalore where the poll percentage in the 2008 election was not much. The campaign would be launched in all districts centres to exhort candidates above 18 years of age as on January 1, 2013, to enrol their names in the voters’ list.
He said 66 per cent of the State’s population is above 18 years of age in the State while it is 63 per cent in Bangalore. Efforts would be made to reach the target of 65 per cent in Bangalore. Voters’ list is being revised continuously, and 1.65 lakh names have been added to the earlier announced total electorate of 4.18 crore, including 2.04 crore women. The ratio of female voters to male voters is 956: 1000 against 968:1,000 in the general population in the State.
Corrections undertaken
Mr. Jha admitted that there are some errors in the voter database and those are being corrected. Already 43,000 such cases have been corrected.
