Over 43,000 cops deployed for Feb 21 Gujarat civic polls

The deployment would include 25,000 personnel from regular units, 15,000 homeguards, and 3,000 from the state reserve police force (SRPF), Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia said.

Over 43,000 police personnel will be deployed for the civic polls in six major cities of Gujarat on February 21, state Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia said on Friday.

The first phase of voting for the three-phased elections to the decentralised tiers of local bodies at the village, block and district levels in Kerala will be conducted by the Kerala State Election Commission on Tuesday. (PTI/ File photo)

Counting of votes for the polls in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar will take place on February 23.

The deployment would include 25,000 personnel from regular units, 15,000 homeguards, and 3,000 from the state reserve police force (SRPF), he said.

Bhatia said police had, since January 23 when the poll notification was issued, seized liquor worth ₹8 crore and ₹1.97 lakh during searches.

Since last month, over 48,000 licensed firearms have been temporarily seized from owners, and 1.5 lakh people were placed under preventive detection, the DGP added.

In a statement, Bhatia said extra forces would be deployed in sensitive polling booths, adding that 97 check posts have been created along the state's borders in view of the polls.