Nearly 68,000 Delhi police personnel will be deployed for the elections. (File)
Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of Delhi Assembly polls with the deployment of 190 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), 19,000 Home Guards and 42,000 Delhi Police personnel.
"We have been putting 190 companies of CAPF who are regularly patrolling to ensure peace and tranquility," said Praveer Ranjan, Delhi Police Special Commissioner (Intelligence), told news agency ANI.
The seven main divisions of CAPF are Assam Rifles, Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Security Guards (NSG) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). Apart from that, there would be additional staff from PCR traffic and communication in addition to the staff deployed to man the polling booths.
"Roughly 68,000 Delhi police personnel will be deployed for the election duty," he said.
All five polling stations in Shaheen Bagh have been declared "critical" by Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh.
"I went to Shaheen Bagh and I did not find any obstruction in the proceeding of the election. There are 40 booths out of which five polling stations which have been tagged critical," said Ranbir Singh.
"People in support of the sit-in or against have been coming regularly. We are trying to hold negotiations with them. Trying to convince people to do it in democratic manner and so far we did not have any problem apart from two incidents," Mr Ranjan said.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, 47 companies of CAPF were deployed. However, the Delhi Assembly Election will see a four-time increase in deployment.
In Delhi, 3,141 critical polling stations have been identified along with 144 vulnerable polling stations and 102 Expenditure Sensitive Pockets.