There will be close to 200 companies of Central paramilitary forces deployed in West Bengal for the second phase of elections on April 18.
These will be for just three Parliamentary seats in the state – Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Rajgunj. Central force deployment will be available for close to 80 per cent polling booths in these constituencies.
Out of the 194 companies, 44 will be for Jalpaiguri, 77 for Darjeeling (along with nine companies to be kept on reserve) and 64 companies for Raigunj constituency.
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The Election Commission of India has appointed a special police observer for West Bengal and Jharkhand, Vivek Dubey, who has been analysing the central force deployment issue for the past couple of weeks. He has met senior officials in the state administration as well as in the Election Commission. Dubey has also heard about allegations and demands from political parties. The Opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been demanding deployment of central forces in all polling booths.
[Cover image representational]
