145;Vulnerable146; seats under EC scanner

For the UP Assembly election the Election Commission may have done away with the time-tested practice of grading specific constituencies...

For the UP Assembly election the Election Commission may have done away with the time-tested practice of grading specific constituencies and polling booths as 8216;sensitive or hypersensitive8217; to counter poll-related distrubances and violence, but it has opted for 8220;vulnerability mapping8221; of the state and its constituencies.

The 8220;vulnerability mapping8221; is done through identification of constituencies and areas where there are large number of 8220;absentee voters8221;, leaving a scope for impersonation and other methods of rigging. 8220;Though we are deploying Central paramilitary forces to each and every polling booth for all seven election phases, we are identifying vulnerable areas that need special attention,8221; an EC official said.

The vulnerability mapping of the constituencies, being conducted for the first time, will also identify polling booths that have a history of 8220;abnormally high turnout in comparison to other booths or zone averages.8221;

It will also take into account the constituencies where the victory margins in the past have been 8220;abnormally high8221;. 8220;These are vulnerable constituencies as they see rigging or coercion in voting,8221; the source said.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy and Commissioners Navin Chawla and S Y Quraishi will begin their review of the poll preparation for the first phase on April 7. Already in the state, it is their first visit there after the bureaucratic brass was reshuffled on the EC8217;s orders. The first batch of 67,000 paramilitary forces will be taking up position in various districts from March 26. The Home Ministry will be responsible for deploying the requested number of forces to their exact locations. It has requested the Railway Ministry to run special trains to transport the forces to the state. The EC recently held a review meeting with Home Secretaries and police chiefs of neighbouring states. The CEC pointed out that apart from the law and order situation, there were certain other issues that compounded the problem, such as, people using unauthorised gunmen and special vehicles that could easily be used for intimidation of voters.