Security arrangements in place, Puducherry set for polls tomorrow

As Puducherry goes to polls on Tuesday, 34 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been deployed in the Union Territory (UT).

As Puducherry goes to polls on Tuesday, 34 compes of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been deployed in the Union Territory (UT).

Along with that, the Election Commission (EC) has also constituted 105 flying squads, 105 static surveillance teams, 26 rolling static surveillance teams, and 35 video surveillance teams to ensure the free and fair execution of polling.

For the elections, as many as 1,558 polling stations, including 952 main and 606 auxiliary polling stations, have been set up in the UT in 635 locations.

In the run-up to the polls, Puducherry police have so far seized 5.40 crore rupees and liquor worth more than 68 lakh rupees, the EC said.

To ensure a safe election, the EC has restricted the number of electors per polling station to 1,000.

A total of 30 constituencies across the UT are going to polls, in which 324 candidates are in the fray.

Purva Garg, District Collector, Puducherry on March 31 informed that polling will start from 7 am and shall go on till 7 pm, with the last one hour dedicated for COVID-19 positive patients to cast their votes.

As far as people under home isolation are concerned, postal ballots have been arranged for them, said the district collector.

Elections in Puducherry, which is currently under President's Rule, is mainly between the Congress-DMK alliance and the NDA comprising All India NR Congress, AIADMK and BJP.

Polling for 30 assembly seats in Puducherry will be held on April 6. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

Of the 30 assembly seats, five are reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates. A total of 10,04,507 electors will exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 324 candidates across 30 constituencies in Puducherry.

( With inputs from ANI )