Border areas with Nepal under vigilance for May 7 polls

Security arrangements have been beefed up at the seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Bihar sharing borders with Nepal to ward off any attempted electoral malpractices by anti-social elements during the fifth phase of polls on May 7, a government official said on Monday.

Though Indo-Nepal borders of the poll-bound constituencies will not be sealed, security forces will remain vigilant at those areas on the polling date as a part of the security drills for the general elections, chief secretary AK Sinha said.

In fact district officials of the seven constituencies would keep in touch with their counterpart across the border in this connection, he added.

The seven seats spread across eight districts going into polls on Wednesday are Saran, Hajipur (SC), Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Maharajganj and Ujiyarpur.

Meanwhile, two helicopters will be deployed for air surveillance and 66,211 jawans will be put on duty with regular jawans manning each polling stations during Wednesday's elections.

A total of 145 companies of the Central Para Military Forces comprising BSF (35), CRPF (34), SSB (24), RPF (15), MPSAP (20), ITBP (12) and CISF (5) will be deployed for manning security in seven Lok Sabha constituencies, he said.

Besides, 74 companies of BMP, 37,766 DAP jawans and 16,211 homeguards will also be put on duty on these seven Lok Sabha constituencies, Sinha said.

Seven units of the mounted police, 36 motor boats, 375 motorcycles will also be deputed in riverine areas and rivers falling under these seven seats, he said.

As part of the security measures, as many as 82,725 persons have been rein in under sections 107 and 110 of the CrPC, 33,088 people were made to furnish bond for good conduct and 12,526 were arrested, he said, adding, that 2,375 licenced weapons have been seized to prevent its misuse.

LJP supremo Ramvilas Paswan, former Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Congress' Akhilesh Prasad Singh are among 118 candidates in fray for the seven seats.