Ahead of LS elections, EC sanctions 920 CAPF units for state — highest in country

According to sources, the poll panel has sanctioned 635 CAPF units for Jammu and Kashmir, 360 for Chhattisgarh, 295 for Bihar, 252 companies for Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, 250 for Jharkhand, 200 for Manipur, Gujarat and Rajasthan, 150 for Maharashtra and 113 for Madhya Pradesh.

EC officials said around 100 companies reached Bengal on Friday and the rest will be deployed in a phased manner. Another 50 companies are expected to reach the state soon, most likely by March 7, the official added. “The process of deployment of the central forces has commenced. They are primarily here for confidence-building purposes. Another 50 companies are likely to arrive by March 7,” the official added.

“Ten companies of CAPF will be deployed in the city. Twenty-one companies will be posted in North 24 Parganas districts. Nine companies are being deployed in South 24 Parganas,” he added. Eight companies of central forces will be deployed in Nadia district while nine will be there in Howrah and Hooghly districts, he added. The full bench of the Election Commission is scheduled to visit West Bengal from March 3-5 to take stock of the law and order situation and poll preparedness in Bengal.

Around 50 people died in poll-related violence during the panchayat elections held in July last year.

The BJP hit out at the ruling TMC  and said the Mamata Banerjee-led state government was responsible for the poll-related violence in the state.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said, “It is a shame for Bengal that elections in this state can not be conducted without deployment of central forces. The ECI has a strong observation on this and they knew what happened in West Bengal during the polls and post-poll. How the bloodshed happened. For this, only the TMC government is responsible.”

The TMC hit out at the BJP and alleged that the CAPF deployment before the elections comes after the Centre introduced a bill that seeks to replace the Chief Justice of India with a Cabinet Minister in the committee for selection of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners. The Bill was passed by both the Houses.

“Elections have not been announced. The ECI takes charge of state election machinery and law and order only after the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect after an announcement. This year, we are seeing deployment prior to the announcement. This year only, the BJP-led central government changed rules and replaced the Chief Justice of India with the Union Home Minister in the three-member selection panel,” TMC’s Jayprakash Majumder said.

“While they are sending 920 companies to Bengal, see how many are being sent to Manipur and Uttar Pradesh, which according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) have the highest crime rates. Having no organisation here, the BJP is trying to use central forces to intimidate voters and make them vote for them. But, they will fail as they did in the 2021 assembly polls,” Majumder added.

Meanwhile, notices were served to a few schools in Kolkata for arrangements to accommodate CAPF jawans being deployed to the state. Bethune Collegiate School on Friday was directed to suspend physical classes for students of up to Class 8, and switch to online lessons.  Jodhpur Girls School also confirmed that they have received a notice to make arrangements for accommodation of central force jawans.

— With PTI inputs