822 companies of CAPF sent to West Bengal days before panchayat elections
4,834 booths out of 61,636 booths have been identified as sensitive for the panchayat elections.
The State Election Commission (SEC) has informed the Calcutta High Court that the Union Home Ministry has sanctioned the remaining 485 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) for the panchayat polls which is scheduled to take place on the 8th of July. This takes the total number of companies deployed to 822.
During the contempt hearing against the SEC over the deployment of central forces, the poll panel told the bench of the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice that it received intimation that the centre has sanctioned 485 companies in addition to the 337 companies. The SEC counsel has also informed the High Court that 4,834 booths out of the 61,636 booths have been identified as sensitive for the panchayat elections.
On June 21, the Calcutta High Court had ordered the SEC to requisition over 820 companies of central forces for the election. Despite making the requisition for 822 companies, the centre only sent 337. The SEC claimed that they sent many letters to the centre demanding more companies.
During the hearing, one of the applicants said that although there was a specific direction of the court that contractual employees should not be put on election duty, there are hundreds of instances where such deployment has been done.
The panchayat polls in West Bengal have been nothing short of a battle as there have been various instances of violence during the process of filing of nominations. The opposition parties have alleged that the ruling party, Trinamool Congress is behind the violence and that the ruling party is restricting people from other parties from filing nominations for the polls.
