Bengal bypolls: 120 companies of CAPF may be allotted for six Assembly constituencies

Kolkata, Oct 17
A total of 120 companies of central armed police forces (CAPF) personnel might be deployed for the six Assembly constituencies in West Bengal which will be going for bypolls on November 13, with counting slated for November 23.

Sources from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal said that the calculation had been arrived at following the desire of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to deploy CAPF for all the 1,583 polling booths in these six assembly constituencies.

Going by that logic the maximum CAPF deployment will be required for the Medinipur Assembly constituency in West Midnapore district, which has the maximum number of polling booths at 304. The distributions of polling booths in the other five Assembly constituencies are 300 at Sitai in Cooch Behar district, 279 at Haroa in North 24 Parganas district, 264 at Taldangra in Bankura district, 226 at Madarihat in Alipurduar district and 210 at Naihati in North 24 Parganas district.

CEO office insiders said that the Commission also intends to cover all the booths under webcasting as was done in the parliamentary polls this year.

All these six constituencies fell vacant as the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year. Barring Madarihat, which was with the BJP, the Trinamool Congress had won the remaining five in the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls. The bypolls are extremely crucial for both the Trinamool and the BJP, considering that they will be conducted against the backdrop of the boiling situation in West Bengal amid the ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August.

The Trinamool leadership has already claimed that the continuing protests on the rape and murder issue will not have any impact on the electoral results and the candidates of the ruling party will be elected from all six constituencies. The BJP is taking the bypolls quite seriously with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah scheduled to come to Kolkata this month, to finalise the party strategy.