— Photo: T. Singaravelou

ADDING TO THE TENSION: A motorcycle, belonging to a supporter of a political party, was burnt by unidentified persons in Nellithope.

PONDICHERRY: Police have almost completed the process of identifying the sensitive constituencies and polling booths in Pondicherry.

Sources in the administration said seven constituencies and 191 polling booths in the Union Territory have already been identified as sensitive.

The police have zeroed in on these constituencies and booths based on the caste factor, strength of the candidates, presence of habitual offenders and the events occurred during past elections. Though at this stage only AIADMK, CPI (ML) and DPI have announced their candidates, the sensitivity of the constituencies were gauged based on the "ground work" of some possible contenders, says a senior officer.

"We have also got inputs from various sources," another officer added.

According to the preliminary list given to the Election Commission, Modeliarpeth, Nellithope, Oupplam, Cassicade, Bahour, Reddiyarpalayam and Nettapakkam constituencies have been identified as sensitive.

Nellithope constituency is a new entrant into the sensitive list as far as Assembly elections are concerned in the Union Territory. It has been included taking into consideration the incidents that occurred after the poll process began.

Minor scuffles between the supporters of the AIADMK candidate Om Sakthi Sekar, a prominent real estate dealer, and DMK leader R V Janakiraman, who would in all probability again contest from Nellithope, were reported during the recent days.

Since the commencement of the election process, police have "bounded over" 269 "habitual offenders" by executing bonds ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh for good behaviour during the next six months.

There are another 78 identified habitual offenders who are yet to be traced and they are being watched out, said a police officer.

Police are also monitoring the non-bailable warrants issued to 124 persons for criminal offences. The list has been sent to the returning officers for deletion of their names from the electoral list.

The police have also requested the Election Commission to send 20 companies of paramilitary forces for deployment along with the 2000 territorial police.

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