As West Bengal prepares for the upcoming bypolls next month, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced a significant increase in the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) across six sensitive Assembly constituencies.
This decision comes in response to the heightened booth sensitivity and requests from various political factions in the state.
Initially, the ECI planned to deploy 89 companies of CAPF for the elections, and officials were already establishing this deployment for effective area dominance.
However, after assessing the situation, the ECI has decided to bolster this number to a total of 108 companies, adding 19 additional units to enhance security.
Sources within the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office revealed that the original plan allocated personnel from various forces:
- 30 companies from the Border Security Force (BSF),
- 24 from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF),
- 13 from the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB),
- 12 from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), and
- 10 from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)
The revised allocation will now include an extra five companies from the CRPF, 10 from the BSF, and additional units from the ITBP and CISF.
The six constituencies set for bypolls are scattered over five districts:
- Sitai in Cooch Behar,
- Madarihat in Alipurduar,
- Taldangra in Bankura,
- Medinipur in West Midnapore, and
- Haroa and Naihati in North 24 Parganas
Voters will go to the polls on 13 November, with officials announcing the results on 23 November.
In the previous Assembly elections of 2021, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) secured victories in five of the six constituencies, with Madarihat being the exception.
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