The Election Commission has recently submitted a fresh request to the Union home ministry to deploy additional forces in Bengal during the last three phases of the general election.
The plea coincides with BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's claim that more companies of central forces would arrive in the state for Phases V, VI and VII.
Prior to the election announcement, the commission had sought 920 companies of central forces. If the latest requisition is accepted, the total companies deployed in the state may exceed 1,000, said a source on the poll panel.
The latest request comes after the conclusion of the fourth phase of polls, which was marred by during which there were multiple incidents of violence, including an attack on the convoy of Dilip Ghosh, the BJP candidate for Bardhaman-Durgapur.
Ghosh's convoy faced attacks twice on Monday, allegedly by workers of the Trinamool Congress, first at Manteshwar and then at Kalna gate in Burdwan town. These attacks resulted in vandalism of his vehicles and injuries to his security guards.
"Tomorrow (Wednesday) onwards, thousands and thousands of CAPF (central armed paramilitary force) personnel will be in Bengal.... You just wait and see what happens to Trinamool in the fifth, sixth and seventh phases of the polling," Adhikari had said after the polling for the fourth phase ended on Monday.
Sources on the poll panel have said at present, 596 companies of central forces are in the state and the central government had committed to send another 166 companies of CAPF before the fifth phase, taking the total force count to 762.
According to commission officials, out of 762 companies, 613 companies will be deployed on poll duty and the remaining 149 companies will be used for manning the strong rooms and maintaining law and order in other districts.
“The ministry has also told the commission that they will send another 258 companies of central forces before the sixth phase, which will take the total force count to 1,020 companies. This will stay till the end of the polls in the state,” a senior official at the chief electoral officer’s office said.
The commission decided to deploy more forces in the last three phases of the election after reports of violence in several areas in the fourth phase during which only 596 companies of central forces were present in the state.
During the third phase — when four constituencies went to the polls — the commission had deployed 406 companies of central forces, averaging at 5.5 Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) personnel per booth. In the fourth phase, during which eight constituencies went to the polls, the average came down to approximately 3.7 CAPF personnel per polling station.
Though there was presence of central forces in all the booths, several senior officials in the commission believe that the sparse presence of central forces on patrolling duty was partly responsible for the violence.
"There were only 71 QRT in the four constituencies and as a result, the force could not reach the troubled spot in time," a senior commission official said.