More than 28 per cent polling stations in Madhya Pradesh have been declared sensitive prompting authorities to undertake elaborate security measures to ensure free and fair assembly polls on December 1.
This amounts to 11,859 of the 42,267 polling stations for the 230 assembly seats. The hyper-sensitive category has been merged with sensitive one this time, Chief Electoral Officer D S Mathur said in Bhopal.
The maximum number of 1046 sensitive polling stations are located in the dacoity-prone Gwalior-Chambal divisions and Tikamgarh district followed by 769 in Naxalite-hit Balaghat district, while the minimum number of 54 sensitive booths are in Umariya district.
There are 49 sensitive booths in Speaker Srinivas Tiwari's Mangawan constituency in Rewa district where large scale irregularities in preparation of voters' list had been alleged leading to a thorough review and deletion of over 21,000 names from the electoral rolls.
Security forces have been deployed in strength in areas where authorities apprehend trouble, including in Naxalite-infested Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori districts. The People's War group's of Naxalites has ordered the people of Balaghat district to boycott the elections.
About 100 companies of central para-military forces have been allotted to the state, official sources said.
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