Photo: Subir Roy

ANXIOUS WAIT: Ticket seekers outside Apna Dal office in Lucknow on Thursday. Apna Dal is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in U.P. elections.

LUCKNOW : The Election Commission has made mandatory deployment of Central Para Military Forces (CPMF) at polling stations by 5 p.m. on the eve of voting in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Even a 15-20 minute delay in their reporting will lead to cancellation of voting at the polling centre concerned, Principal Secretary (Home) K Chandramouli said here on Thursday He said 657 companies of Central forces were requisitioned for election duty. The first round of the seven-tier elections is scheduled for April 7. Fifty CPMF companies would reach the State on March 26 and the remaining by April 2.

As all 657 companies would be deployed in each phase, 40-50 centres were identified for their stay in each of the 13 districts, where elections are held in the first phase. Mr. Chandramouli said 2200 buses would transport around 70,000 Central security personnel for each phase. The forces would reach the State from far off places such as Kerala, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir by train.

Around 6.58 lakh licensed weapons were deposited in police stations.

However, some categories of trades which involved heavy cash transactions such as banks, petrol pumps and jewellery shops were exempted from depositing arms. There are around eight lakh licensed arms in U.P. During the last one month, 4,258 raids were conducted on 5,861 illegal arms units.

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