Bengal Panchayat polls: 315 companies of Central forces sent; SEC seeks 507 more from Centre

The Centre has sent forces such as CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and RPF totalling 200 companies, besides 115 companies

PTI, Kolkata, Jun 23, 2023 :  After getting 315 companies of the central forces out of the 822 requested from the Centre for the panchayat elections, the West Bengal State Election Commission on Friday wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs to send the rest as quickly as possible, an official said.

The Centre has sent forces such as CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and RPF totalling 200 companies, besides 115 companies of state armed police from Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and other states for the July 8 panchayat elections.

“The SEC has written to the Ministry of Home Affairs to send the rest of the 507 companies of central forces for the panchayat elections in the state. The ministry was requested to send the rest of the companies as quickly as possible because they need to be deployed in the districts,” the official told PTI.

Meanwhile, a few teams of the central forces on Friday conducted a march for area domination in Hooghly and Bankura districts, he said.

SEC officials and representatives of the central forces held a closed-door meeting on the deployment of the personnel in the evening.

Earlier in the day, the SEC informed Calcutta High Court that it has requisitioned 485 companies of central forces in addition to 337 companies already asked for, taking the total to 822 companies for the July 8 panchayat polls in West Bengal.

Altogether 5.67 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to choose their representatives for nearly 74,000 seats in the three-tier rural polls – zilla parishads, panchayat samiti and gram panchayats.