DEHRA DUN: Stringent security arrangements are in place for Wednesday's Uttarakhand Assembly elections and Tehri Lok Sabha by-election in the wake of a ``threat perception'' from terrorists and Maoists.

The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have high stakes in the elections as 60 lakh voters choose from 785 candidates to elect 69 MLAs, with the election from Bajpur countermanded due to the death of Congress candidate Janak Raj Sharma.

The two parties have, however, not declared their Chief Ministerial candidates apparently because the Congress's N. D. Tiwari and Harish Rawat opted out of the race and senior BJP leader B. C. Khanduri's name only being a matter of speculation.

Some 75,000 security personnel, including 6,500 Central paramilitary men, have been deployed for the polling, said Inspector-General (Law and Order) Anil Raturi.

A total of 7,491 polling stations have been set up, with 1,200 of them declared "sensitive" and "hyper-sensitive", and five helicopters being used for dropping polling staff and material in far-flung and snow-bound areas like Namik in Pithoragarh and Bacham, Kilpada, Surat and Badiakot in Kapkot.

``A general alert has been issued following a threat perception from terrorists and Maoists. Preparations for peaceful and smooth conduct of the polling have been completed,'' said Chief Electoral Officer N. Ravishanker on the eve of polling day. The hill State's borders with Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Rampur, Moradabad, Bareilly and Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh have been sealed.

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