All arrangements in place for Munugode bypoll, says Chief Electoral Officer

The polling will be conducted from 7 am to 6 pm on November 3, while counting will be held on November 6, Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said

Hyderabad: All arrangements are in place for smooth and peaceful conduct of polling for the Munugode byelection on November 3. The polling will be conducted from 7 am to 6 pm on November 3, while counting will be held on November 6, Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said here on Monday.

With the campaign for the bypoll coming to a close after 6 pm on Tuesday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has barred sending bulk SMS and social media campaign after the deadline along with physical campaign. Further, all the non-locals have been advised to leave the constituency. Special teams had been deployed to constantly monitor the messages on social media and also verify presence of non-locals in the constituency.

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The CEO said around 2.41 lakh voters would be able to cast their vote at 298 polling stations and arrangements had been made to webcast the election process in all the polling stations. About 105 polling stations were identified as critical. As many as 1,192 polling personnel in addition to over 300 in reserve had been drafted for the bypoll.

A total 3,366 State police personnel and 15 companies of the Central paramilitary forces had been deployed. A seven-member team of Income Tax officials had been deployed to monitor the expenditure related activities of the candidates and political parties.

Around 51 static surveillance teams, flying squads and for inspection of model code of conduct violations, are already on duty. In all, 100 checkposts had been set up covering the entire constituency for checking the movement of people and material from other places. People have been advised to carry their identification cards, to move to other places on personal works.

So far, the officials have bound over 821 persons with criminal antecedents apart from filing 185 cases. About 111 belt shops had been closed, while 198 police teams had been deployed for checking unauthorised movement of men and material ahead of the polling. The police have seized Rs 6.8 crore in cash and 4,560 litres of liquor till Monday evening.

Responding to a question, the Chief Electoral Officer made it clear that there were no political pressures on him and that his office was functioning in a transparent manner. He said steps were taken to verify 479 complaints received from political parties. He urged people to lodge complaints pertaining to violation of model code to the ECI using Apps like cVIGIL.

“BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy has furnished his explanation relating to charges that a company owned by his family had transferred over Rs 5 crore to individuals and companies in Munugode constituency recently. The response had been forwarded to the ECI as it had issued a notice calling for an explanation from the BJP candidate,” he said.