The Hindu : National : Poll for Pauri parliamentary seat today

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Poll for Pauri parliamentary seat today

C. K. Chandramohan

190 booths declared sensitive

DEHRA DUN: The stage is set for polling for the Pauri parliamentary seat on Sunday. The contest mainly is between Lt. Gen. (Retd) T.P.S. Rawat of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Satpal Maharaj of the Congress. Five other lesser known aspirants are also in the race.

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The Lok Sabha seat was vacated by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri after winning the Dhumakot Vidhan Sabha seat that had been vacated by Gen. Rawat, then a Congress MLA and a former Minister in the Narain Dutt Tiwari Cabinet. Interestingly, it was Mr. Satpal Maharaj who drafted the General into politics a few years ago.

“The polling parties have reached the 1556 polling booths spread over Pauri Garhwal, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and parts of Dehra Dun district and adequate police and para-military forces have been deployed to ensure free and fair polling,” said the Chief Electoral Officer, Radha Raturi, over the weekend.

A total of 190 polling booths have been declared sensitive and 77 hyper-sensitive. Besides 5,400 police personnel, Home Guards and Prantiya Rakshak Dal jawans, 16 companies of PAC and two companies of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police have also been deployed, said Ashok Kumar, Inspector-General of Police, Garhwal.

The police staged a flag march in Dehra Dun city over the weekend.

Counting of ballots for the by-election will take place on February 27.

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