The Bengal police’s nodal officer for Lok Sabha elections on Friday reportedly asked the police superintendents of Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar to prepare for the deployment of state forces in about 40 per cent of the booths during the first phase of the polls on April 19.

The purported directive from Anand Kumar has come in the backdrop of uncertainty over the availability of enough companies of central armed paramilitary forces (CAPF) for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls on April 19.

In the first phase, three Lok Sabha constituencies in the state — Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar — will go to the polls. The three seats have together 5,814 booths.

“As the availability of more central forces is not yet confirmed, the nodal
officer pointed out that with the CAPF at hand, 60 to 62 per cent of booths could be covered. In case no further central force is sent to Bengal ahead of the first phase of polls, about 40 per cent of the booths will have to be managed by the state police,” said an officer present in a meeting here on Friday.

The officer also said: “The CEO (chief electoral officer), Aariz Aftab, will convene a meeting tomorrow (Saturday) with the special observers and the nodal officers from the state police and the CAPF…. In that meeting, whether the state would get more forces ahead of the first phase would be clear. But before the meeting, the message from the nodal officer of the state police is interesting.”

A total of 177 companies of central forces are deployed in the state right now. Each company has an effective strength of 85 jawans.