Over 75,000 Security Officers To Monitor Apr 11 Elections In Central India - Official

Over 75,000 security personnel will be dispatched to the Indian central state of Chhattisgarh during the upcoming April 11 parliamentary elections as a protective measure against increased Maoist insurgent activity in the area, local media reported citing an official

NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2019) Over 75,000 security personnel will be dispatched to the Indian central state of Chhattisgarh during the upcoming April 11 parliamentary elections as a protective measure against increased Maoist insurgent activity in the area, local media reported citing an official.

The radical communist Maoist insurgency group, which has been fighting with the Indian government for years over land rights, has called local farmers to boycott the elections. The police forces have increased anti-terrorism operations in the region.

"Over 50,000 state and central forces were already stationed in the region to counter the Maoist threat. Now in view of the Lok Sabha [Indian parliament's lower house] polls, another 25,000 personnel, from paramilitary units like the CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] and Border Security Force, have been brought in to guard the constituency," an official told the NDTV news outlet on Monday.

In addition to the forces on the ground, the police would use drones as a way to survey the territory from above, the official added.

The official also remarked that almost half of the polling booths in the state were being considered as high risk for being targeted by the insurgents.

"Of the 1 879 polling booths in Bastar [Chhattisgarh] Lok Sabha constituency, 741 have been marked hyper sensitive. Of the hyper sensitive polling booths, 93 are in Bastar district, 68 in Kondagaon, 71 in Narayanpur, 157 in Dantewada, 129 in Bijapur and 223 in Sukma," the official said.

The biggest challenge would be to escort polling parties to the polling stations and back. In view of the security threat, 289 polling station were relocated to safer places, the official added, and helicopters would be used to ferry polling parties to some of the hypersensitive stations.

The 2019 Indian general election is scheduled to be held in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. Several thousand candidates will compete for 543 parliamentary seats in the Lok Sabha, the Indian parliament's lower house. The vote count will be held on May 23.