Tamil Nadu elections: Police throw security ring around poll facilities

CHENNAI: At least 23,000 state police personnel besides 31 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed at polling stations to maintain law and order and prevent poll-related offences in the city.Commissioner Abin Dinesh Modak said 199 vulnerable locations and 918 vulnerable polling stations have been identified in the city, along with four critical locations and seven critical polling stations. Additional CAPF units from Telangana and Karnataka have also been mobilised. Police personnel were assigned to stations through a computerised random selection process after campaigning ended at 6pm on Tuesday.A total of 491 mobile patrol teams have been deployed to collect EVMs from 21 distribution centres and transport them to polling stations. The teams will be responsible for the machines until they are returned after polling and secured in strongrooms at designated centres.Election authorities carried out vulnerability mapping based on past incidents, voting patterns and intelligence inputs. Officials identified vulnerable voters and areas, traced people responsible for potential intimidation or undue influence, and initiated preventive measures. Polling stations were categorised as critical or non-critical for security deployment and webcasting.Stations with more than 90% turnout, and those where 75% votes were polled in favour of a single candidate last election have been classified as sensitive. Stations with less than 10% turnout and those where repolling or election-related violence was reported in the past five years were also flagged. At vulnerable polling booths, four armed CAPF personnel were deployed outside the premises.