Heavy security for Rae Bareli by-poll

      Rae Bareli: Heavy security arrangements have been made for Monday's by-poll for the high profile Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat, the constituency of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi. The borders of Rae Bareli district have been sealed to ensure free and fair polling. The sprawling constituency has been divided into five super zones, 11 zones and 85 sectors for the polls. Out of the over 2,100 polling booths, 300 have been declared sensitive and 360 hypersensitive where the Central Paramilitary Forces have already taken positions to avoid any untoward incident. In all, 13.60 lakh voters are expected to exercise their franchise on Monday to decide the electoral fortune of the 16 candidates.

    Among these 16, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is seeking re-election from the seat, is the most high profile leader contesting from Rae Bareli, a traditional stronghold of the Gandhi family. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Vinay Katiyar, Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Rajkumar Chaudhary, and Apna Dal candidate Prabha Singh Lodhi are also in the fray among others. Lodhi backed by the expelled BJP leader Uma Bharati, is likely to split the BJP votes in this battle of ballots. Nevertheless, a huge victory is being predicted for Sonia as the Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh has been represented in the Parliament by several generations of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty to which she is married In the last Rae Bareli Lok Sabha polls in 2004, Sonia had defeated her nearest Samajwadi Party rival by nearly 2.5 lakh votes. While BJP is trying to improve its 2004 performance, Bahujan Samaj Party, which finished third then, is supporting Congress this time. BJP was relegated to the distant fourth slot in 2004 polls. The campaign by and large peaceful went around local issues like roads, water, power and employment. The by-poll was necessitated when Sonia, 59, resigned from the Parliament after the Opposition charged her with violating the Constitution by heading the National Advisory Council, while being a Member of Parliament (MP).

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