Additional 10 companies of central forces to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh

ITANAGAR: The Election Commission will deploy an additional 10 companies of central armed police forces (CAPFs) in Arunachal Pradesh for the elections, a senior officer said on Friday. Polling will be held for the state's 50 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies on April 19.

Arunachal Pradesh has a 60-member assembly, and the ruling BJP has already won 10 seats unopposed.

"The Election Commission after assessing the ground reports in the state will deploy 10 additional companies of paramilitary forces," Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pawn Kumar Sain said.

At present a total of 70 companies of CAPFs, state armed police and IRBn are stationed in different districts of the state, he said, adding that the additional forces will arrive by next week.

One company comprises 100 personnel, meaning a total of 8,000 security personnel will be deployed.

Sain said, "This is the highest-ever deployment of security personnel in the state for elections. Their core duty is to instill a sense of confidence and security among people."

He said that besides deploying the armed forces, the EC is ensuring webcasting of all polling stations.

Micro-observers have been appointed for critical polling stations and they would report to general observers, he said.

The EC has appointed 15 general observers, six police observers and as many as 25 expenditure observers to oversee the poll process in the state, the CEO said.

A total of 11,130 polling personnel have been deployed to conduct the elections. Altogether 6,874 EVMs will be used for the simultaneous elections, which will be held across 2,226 polling booths in the state.

Counting of votes for the assembly elections would be held on June 2, while the votes for the two Lok Sabha seats would be counted on June 4 along with the rest of the country.