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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