The Election Commission of India will deploy 70 companies of central forces at 1,097 booths in four Assembly constituencies — Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda and Maniktala — for the by-elections on July 10.

According to data from the commission, Bagda in North 24-Parganas will have the highest concentration of central forces, with 20 companies to manage 301 polling stations. Ranaghat Dakshin in Nadia district which has 307 polling stations will witness the deployment of 19 companies of central forces.

Additionally, 16 companies of central forces will be deployed at Raiganj in North Dinajpur district to man 212 polling stations. Fifteen companies will be stationed in Maniktala to manage 277 polling stations.

The four Assembly seats together have around 10 lakh eligible voters.

Initially, the Election Commission had sanctioned 55 companies of central forces for the four by-elections. But the Union home ministry later allocated an additional 15 companies — four each for Bagda, Ranaghat Dakshin and Raiganj, and three for Maniktala.

“An adequate number of central forces will be deployed, mainly on the premises of the polling stations, on the voting day. Apart from that, personnel of central forces will also be used in the Quick Response Teams (QRTs) that will provide adequate support to the state forces in maintaining law and order during the polling process,” a senior official in the CEO’s (chief electoral officer's) office said.

“The poll body has also deployed two companies of central forces each to guard the strong rooms in the Assembly constituencies,” he added.

Apart from the central forces, the commission will deploy 3,115 state police personnel for law and order in the four Assembly constituencies. Sources in the commission said 893 police personnel would be deployed in Maniktala, followed by 850 in Bagda, 804 in Ranaghat Dakshin and 568 in Raiganj.

“We are not leaving anything to chance. We are trying to make the security arrangement as foolproof as possible so that we can avoid any untoward situation. The forces will be deployed and managed from the District Electoral Officer’s office and it will be monitored from the CEO’s office,” a commission official said.

The bypolls became necessary in three of the four Assembly seats after BJP MLAs switched to the Trinamool Congress. They are Mukut Mani Adhikari (Ranaghat Dakshin), Biswajit Das (Bagda) and Krishna Kalyani (Raiganj). All the three contested in the Lok Sabha elections on Trinamool tickets but lost to the BJP.

The Maniktala seat became vacant after the death of TMC veteran and minister Sadhan Pandey.