BSF on alert along Indo-Bangla border
Source: The Sangai Express / Press Trust of India

Shillong, February 21 2013: The campaigning for February 23 election to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly ended today amid tight security with authorities sealing Indo-Bangladesh border in view of a 36-hour bandh called by a Khasi rebel outfit on the polling day.

The BSF, which has been put on maximum alert along the 498-km border, has deployed 10,000 personnel after a Khasi rebel organisation called a bandh on the polling day in seven districts in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region.

Ninety-one companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed in the state to maintain law and order and 44 companies in the militant-hit Garo Hills region.

The Congress has put up candidates in all 60 seats while United Democratic Party is contesting in 50 .

In all, 345 candidates belonging to 15 political parties will seek votes from an electorate of 15,03,907 of which 7,59,608 are women.

Of the 345 candidates, which included independents, 25 are women, 11 more than those who contested in the 2008 election.

P A Sangma-led National Peoples' Party is contesting in only 32 seats, while the NCP and the BJP are contesting in 21 and 13 seats respectively.

Of the 2,845 polling stations, 900 have been declared "hyper-sensitive" due to militancy and intense political rivalries, state Chief Secretary P Barkos O Warjri said today.

Warjri, who chaired a high-level meeting on poll preparedness by the state government, said 355 were classified as hyper sensitive due to militant-related threat, 32 were declared so due to "intense political rivalry" .

Booths along the international border and the interstate border with Assam have also been categorised as hyper sensitive.

The P A Sangma-led "informal alliance" with the regional parties and the BJP has made alleged "bad governance" of the Mukul Sangma-led government a poll issue.

The job scam unearthed by the CBI involving cabinet ministers, legislators and top notch politicians depriving genuine candidates of their jobs had the government in a tight corner as NGOs and victims are up in arms.

Yet another scam is the alleged violation of the Forest Act 1980 by cement companies in limestone-rich Jaintia Hills district.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma of Congress, on the other hand, took credit for starting several long-pending projects including four-laning of the Shillong-Guwahati high way, the Shillong Bye-Pass and for trying to end mushrooming of militancy in Garo hills region.

Prominent candidates included Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, Home minister H D R Lyngdoh, education minister R C Laloo, Congress president D D Lapang, former chief minister and UDP president Don Kupar Roy, former Leader of Opposition and son of P A Sangma Conrad K Sangma and his brother James Sangma.

Prominent leaders who campaigned in the run-up to the election included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her vice-president and son Rahul Gandhi, cabinet ministers A K Antony, Sushilkumar Shinde, Leader of Opposition (RS) Arun Jaitley, Goa Dy CM Francis D Sousa, National Mahila BJP president Smriti Irani and others.

The Election Commission has formed flying squads and static surveillance teams to combat the rising menace of cash dole and bribes and carrying of illegal arms in the run up to the Assembly elections.

Static Surveillance Teams and Flying squads were set up in all 60 Assembly constituencies of the state with police and government officials headed by a magistrate.

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