This election, the number of Assembly seats deemed “sensitive” by the Uttar Pradesh Police has grown to 73. That’s 35 more than the 38 seats deemed “critical” in the 2017 state elections.
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Notably, UP Police revealed a day after the poll timetable that they had categorised 95 Assembly segments in the state as “sensitive.” According to a senior police officer, the number was reduced to 73 after recent situations involving law and order and the deployment of security forces were considered.
Kannauj Assembly constituency, which was recently in the headlines after Central agents conducted searches at the homes of three perfume sellers and found a substantial sum of unaccounted money, is one of the seats labelled “sensitive” this time.
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Mau Sadar and Gyanpur in Bhadohi district, which are represented by controversial MLAs Mukhtar Ansari and Vijay Mishra, have also been deemed “sensitive.” Ansari and Mishra are both currently incarcerated. Allahabad (West), which is considered to be the stronghold of imprisoned former MLA Atiq Ahmed, has also been classified “sensitive” by police.
Six Assembly sectors — Mariyahu and Shahganj in Jaunpur district, Loni in Ghaziabad, Allahabad North in Prayagraj, Gunnaur in Sambhal, and Dibiyapur in Auraiya – have been deleted from the police’s 2017 list of “sensitive” seats.
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Prayagraj district has the most “sensitive” seats in the current list, with eight of its 12 constituencies, followed by Ballia with five. Ambedkar Nagar, Baghpat, Saharanpur, Bahraich, Siddharth Nagar,Jaunpur, and Azamgarh districts each contain three “sensitive” constituencies.
