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Tight security for Chapra repoll

By K. Balchand

PATNA, MAY 30. The election to the Chapra Lok Sabha constituency would be held tomorrow for the second time following the countermanding of the one held on April 26 on grounds of poll malpractice.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and Railway Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, is pitted against the Bharatiya Janata Party nominee and former Union Minister, Rajiv Pratap Singh Rudy.

The Saran district administration has issued shoot-at-sight orders. It has issued orders to all the MPs, MLAs and Ministers not belonging to the constituency to leave or face legal action on the day of polling. All the 1,157 booths have been declared sensitive or super sensitive. More than 60 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed.

Of the more than two-dozen people rounded up are seven RJD workers, including the Ranchi district unit chief, Abhay Singh. Illegal weapons and a huge cache of ammunition were recovered from them. Police also arrested five persons whose name figured in complaints lodged during polling on April 26.

The district officials said that Central forces had been deployed at all the polling booths in consultation with the Election Commission observers to prevent the irregularities that were witnessed last time round. Central officials would act as polling officers. However, sources said, that the Central observers were not satisfied with the training imparted to the polling officers. There were also complaints that they had not been taken into confidence in the deployment of the forces and that they had not been provided with the information demanded, notwithstanding the claims of the District Magistrate.

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