Bengal by-polls: 80 companies of central forces to be deployed

Kolkata, Oct 20 (IANS) The Election Commission (EC) has decided to deploy 80 companies of central forces for the forthcoming by election in four assembly constituencies in West Bengal scheduled to be held on October 30.

The deployment of forces has already started and it will be complete in a few days, officials said.

The by-polls would be held in four assembly constituencies including Dinhata in Coochbehar, Santipur in Nadia district, Khardha in North 24 Parganas and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas.

According to highly placed sources in the EC, out of the 80 companies, the maximum number of 24 companies will be deployed at Dinhata in Coochbehar district followed by Gosaba in South 24 Parganas where 20 companies of central forces will be deployed.

Apart from that, another 19 companies will be deployed at Santipur and 17 companies will be deployed in Khardah.

"This force is mainly deployed for maintaining law and order in the constituencies and additionally they have been asked to coordinate with the local people so that they can effectively do the work of area domination. The commission is very critical about conducting a peaceful poll and so if needed more forces will be deployed," a senior official in the CEO office said.

The by elections in Dinhata and Shantipur were pending because Nishit Pramanik, MP from Coochbehar who won from Dinhata and Jagannath Sarkar, MP from Ranaghat who won from Santipur submitted their resignation to Speaker Biman Banerjee in the assembly.

They preferred to retain their respective parliamentary constituencies and resigned from the state legislative assembly. This has left the two seats vacant. Both Sarkar and Pramanik have become union ministers in the Narendra Modi-led government.

The elections in two other assembly constituencies - Gosaba in South 24 Parganas and Khardaha in North 24 Parganas would be held because in both the constituencies, elected candidates had died of Covid-19.

Jayanta Naskar who won from Gosaba and Kajal Sinha who won from Khardaha died after the election was over.