ON THEIR TOES: Election officials checking polling materials distributed to them at the Kasaragod Government College on Tuesday.

Kasaragod: Unprecedented security arrangements have been made in the district for the Assembly elections on Wednesday. Elections are being held in Kasaragod and Kannur districts in the third and final phase of polling in the State.

District Collector Minhaj Alam told The Hindu here on Tuesday that a strong police force, comprising 4,500 personnel, would be deployed in the five Assembly segments, Thrikkarippur, Hosdurg, Uduma, Kasaragod and Manjeswaram, here. The number of voters was 8.5 lakhs.

The security personnel included 1,000 men from the armed police battalions of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Alam said all 843 booths in the district had been declared sensitive. Among these, 151 were considered hypersensitive (vulnerable).

He said a local constable and four armed personnel from outside the State would be posted at each vulnerable booth and one constable and three personnel from the Kerala Armed Reserve Police at each sensitive booth.

North Zone Inspector-General of Police M.N. Krishnamurthy, who reviewed the law-and-order situation on the eve of the polls, said security measures were satisfactory. Flag marches were taken out in rural and urban areas of all the constituencies in the two districts.

He said group patrolling would be carried out using 50 vehicles and law-and-order patrolling using 60 of them. Striking forces, at the level of circle inspector, deputy superintendent of police, superintendent of police, deputy inspector-general of police and director-general of police, had been formed to deal with untoward incidents.

Mr. Alam said digital cameras would be provided to 350 polling stations to check impersonation and bogus voting. Videography and photography would be strictly prohibited inside booths. Over 1,000 electronic voting machines would be utilised for the polls.

Two election observers were in charge of each constituency. However, Trikkarippur had three of them. A super-observer, the former Chief Electoral Officer of Pondicherry Sathyavathy, would monitor polling in the entire district. Mr. Alam, who is the Election Officer of the district, said more than 3,600 Union and State Government employees had been posted for election duty.

The officials, including presiding officers and polling officers, had made arrangements for polling at booths assigned to them. A sector officer had been appointed to supervise each booth, he said.

The number of candidates contesting in the five constituencies is 28. Among them, the Indian Union Muslim League leaders Cherkalam Abdulla and C.T. Ahamed Ali, MLAs, are seeking re-election in Manjeswaram and Kasaragod, respectively. K.V. Kunhiraman, MLA, is the Communist Party of India (Marxist) nominee in Uduma.

Sharp polarisation of the highly politicised electorate in Manjeswaram and Kasaragod has led to a three-cornered fight in these constituencies. Here, the Bharatiya Janata Party is posing a stiff challenge to the Muslim League candidates. In Hosdurg, Uduma and Trikkarippur, it is a straight fight between the candidates of the United Democratic Front and the Left Democratic Front.

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