Ahead of Phase 5 of the Lok Sabha Elections election officers prepare a contingency plan to shift polling officials and voters inside school bunkers in case of cross-border firing near the Line of Control (LOC) on polling day.
Poonch District Election Officer Yasin Choudhary while speaking to ANI, said there are a total of 474 polling stations in the district out of which 54 stations are under the long-arm shelling range which is 0 to 5 km from the LOC. Over two dozen are under the short-arm shelling range which is within 0 to 1 km and around 12 which are across the fence.
Choudhary said that they have prepared a contingency plan, which is a standard practice for any election, Choudhary told ANI, that contingency plans are made for “…all these polling stations as there always is a possibility of shelling exchange, and the SOP requires such a thing... We have the provisions for movable bunkers as well along with that we have designated alternate polling stations as well..."
According to the Indian Express, in response to the threat of militant attacks and shelling from across the border, 167 additional companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed in J&K’s Poonch and Rajouri districts ahead of the May 25 elections in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency.
In phase 5 of the election, 5 seats in Bihar, 1 seat in Jammu And Kashmir, 3 seats in Jharkhand, 1 in Ladakh, 13 seats in Maharashtra, 5 seats in Odisha, 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh and 7 seats in West Bengal are set to go to polls. A total of 695 candidates from 8 states and union territories are in the fray in this phase.`
The five Lok Sabha constituencies set to undergo polling in the 2024 elections across five phases are Baramulla, Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri, Udhampur, and Jammu. In the fifth phase of the election, the Baramulla constituency will undergo an election which is a pivotal battleground where voters will determine their parliamentary representation.