The main areas of protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act — Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Nagar — will witness four times increase in deployment of security personnel in comparison with the 2019 Lok Sabha election, said officials.

The police on Thursday said they will deploy around 80,000 security personnel across the city on Saturday to ensure fair and peaceful elections. They said extra security personnel will be deployed in Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Nagar polling stations as these two areas have been termed “critical”.

The police said there will be 190 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), 19,000 home guards and 42,000 Delhi police personnel. They also said there will be drones and facial recognition systems to keep watch on potential troublemakers. All district DCPs have already intensified area dominance exercise. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 47 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) were deployed. “A total of 153 entry and exit points to the city from Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gurugram that include 43 non-motorable routes and 110 motorable routes to be under strict security cover. Paramilitary personnel will be deployed at borders. We have deployed security personnel at porous routes to keep watch on the movement of any suspicious person,” an officer said.

A senior officer said they have installed door frame metal detectors at entry points of Shaheen Baghfor the security of agitators at the protest site. He also said barricades have been placed on both carriageways outside Jamia Millia Islamia.

“We have taken these steps after the three firing incidents that took place in Shaheen Bagh and Jamia. The security personnel has been instructed to frisk visitors at the protest sites with the help of volunteers,” the officer added.

In Delhi, the Election Commission has identified 3,141 critical and 144 vulnerable polling stations.