Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta on Tuesday said that all necessary steps including deployment of Central paramilitary forces would be taken by the Election Commission (EC) to ensure a free and fair poll in the by-election for Madurai (West). The final rolls for the Madurai (West) segment would be published on Wednesday, he said. The process got delayed in view of the detection of a large number of multiple and ineligible or false claims for registration in rolls, he said.
Asked if the EC would deploy additional forces during the by-election, he told a press conference here that nowadays it had become necessary to deploy Central paramilitary forces even for by-elections. “But right now, I am not in a position to say anything on the number of companies to be deployed there,” he said.
The EC would be looking at the by-election for Madurai (West) closely against the backdrop of conducting free and fair poll in different parts of the country such as Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, Mr.Gupta said. No violation of or deviation from the Model Code of Conduct was allowed by the EC in these States, he said, adding that this would be ensured in Tamil Nadu also. Source: TheHindu
