More than 3,000 polling booths in Delhi are marked ‘critical’
The elections in Delhi will take place in a single phase — the sixth phase — on May 25, and the city will have a little over 13,500 polling booths
With less than two months to go for the general elections to be conducted in the Capital, the Delhi Police have categorised 3,000 polling booths across the city as “critical” and have sent their details to the Election Commission of India (EC) for a final approval, officers aware of the matter said on Monday.
The Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1, with the counting of votes to take place on June 4. The elections in Delhi will take place in a single phase — the sixth phase — on May 25, and the city will have a little over 13,500 polling booths.
A senior police officer said that a polling booth which recorded incidents of voters boycotting the poll process,or cases of violence in the last assembly and/or general elections is categorised as a “critical” polling booth. The officer said that this definition also extends to polling booths where a large number of voters were not issued election photo identity cards (EPICs) or voter IDs, or booths with a large number of “missing” voters.
“In addition, polling booths that recorded 90% voting but 75% of the votes were cast in favour of one candidate are also put in the ‘critical’ category,” the officer said, on condition of anonymity.
The officer said that once submitted, the EC generally approves the list.
To be sure, the police had categorised 2,800 polling booths as critical in the 2019 general elections, while the 2020 assembly elections had 2,876 critical polling booths.
Giving details of how the police came up with the list of critical polling booths, the officer said that all 15 police districts in Delhi were asked to conduct a proper check of booths in their respective jurisdictions, and submit a report.
“After a thorough verification of all the 13,500-odd polling booths located in over 2,650 poll premises, over 3,000 polling booths in over 900 poll premises were marked as critical,” the officer said.
“The deputy commissioners of police of the districts have also been asked to provide the details of trouble makers and history-sheeters in their respective districts. All will either be externed or bound down before the polls as a precautionary measure,” he added.
A second Delhi Police officer said that the police headquarters had recently sent a letter to all police districts, directing them to deploy flying squads and static surveillance teams in all police stations till the elections are held.
“Their role is to keep a close tab on illegal activity during the elections, which includes tracking illegal cash transactions, distribution of liquor, or any other items suspected of the voters,” he said.