CAPF deployment to rise by 32 pc in fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls in Bengal

Kolkata, May 14 Keeping in mind reports of tension surfacing from different pockets of West Bengal in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls on Monday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to increase the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel by around 32 per cent in the fifth phase of polls on May 20.

Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal said that on Monday 578 companies of the CAPF were deployed in West Bengal and the number will be increased to 762 in the fifth phase, a 31.83 per cent rise.

Sources said that this increase in CAPF deployment would be despite the fact that the number of constituencies going for polls in the fifth phase in the state is slightly lesser than what it was in the fourth phase.

While eight constituencies went for polls in the fourth phase, the number is seven for the fifth phase.

These seven constituencies are Serampore, Hooghly and Arambagh in Hooghly District, Barrackpore and Bangaon in North 24 Parganas District and Howrah and Uluberia in Howrah District.

Of these seven constituencies Barrackpore and Bangaon will be under the special scanner of the ECI for different reasons.

While Bangaon is an Indo-Bangladesh bordering constituency, Barrackpore has a history of poll-related violence and tension.

“This is going by the plans of the commission to increase the number of companies of CAPF to be deployed in a phase-wise manner,” a source in the CEO’s office said.

The Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, at the end of the polls on Monday, said that from the next phases the security cover will be tightened by the ECI.

“If the ECI can maintain this quality of security, Trinamool Congress will cry more from the next phase,” Adhikari said.

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