The sixth and the final phase of the West Bengal Assembly polls will be held on Thursday in 25 seats of Purba Medinipur and Cooch Behar districts under heavy security deployment. As many as 58.04 lakh voters will decide the fate of 170 candidates. Of the total voters, 27.8 lakh are women while voters of the third gender number 68.
“While 123 companies of Central forces and 4,500 State police personnel will be stationed in Cooch Behar, 238 companies of Central forces and 3,500 State police personnel will be deployed in Purba Medinipur,” an Election Commission official said. Nearly 680 companies of Central forces had been deployed in Bengal, of which over 300 left for Kerala for the polls there.
“As many as 78 companies of Central forces are manning the strong rooms where EVMs are kept,” sources said.
Bar on official’s movement The commission has instructed Bharati Ghosh, the former Superintendent of Police (SP) of Paschim Medinipur district, who is currently the special SP of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), not to enter the two poll-bound districts. So far, nearly 70 police officers have been removed by the panel after the poll notifications were announced on March 4. The commission has also removed the officer in charge of the Sabang police station in Pachim Medinipur district.
Apart from the Trinamool’s Suvendu Adhikari, who is contesting from Nandigram in Purba Medinipur, State Environment Minister Sudarshan Ghosh Dastider is also in the fray. He will be looking to retain the Mahishadal seat in Purba Mednipur. Senior Trinamool leader and former Minister Hiten Barman is contesting from the Sitalkuchi seat in Cooch Behar.
The EC has identified about 900 troublemakers and has taken action against them. ‘Militarisation of elections’
Meanwhile, even as they welcomed the EC’s effort to conduct free and fair polls, human rights activists expressed concern over the massive deployment of paramilitary forces for a “democratic process like the Assembly polls.”
“Such large-scale use of Central forces seems like a trend of militarisation of elections which cannot be healthy for any democratic society,” the vice-president of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), Ranjit Sur, told The Hindu .
Former Police Commissioner of Kolkata Gautam Mohan Chakraborty said: “I do not remember such large deployment of Central forces for a six-phase Assembly polls. But we can see that the move has reassured voters.”
