The Election Commission has decided to retain 400 companies of central forces in West Bengal until June 6 to maintain law and order, considering the state's history of pre-poll and post-poll violence, a senior official announced on Friday.
"After the June 1 polling, half of the central forces will leave the state, but 400 companies will remain until June 6. Battalions of the BSF, CRPF, and SSB will be retained," the official stated.
In a related development, Kolkata Police seized over Rs 10 lakh from four bikers on Friday night during a routine check near Howrah Bridge, ahead of the final phase of polling. The individuals were detained for further investigation.
West Bengal, which has 42 Lok Sabha seats, has been slated for polls in all seven phases of the general elections. While polling for six phases has concluded, the remaining constituencies will go to the polls on June 1.
In the first and second phases, polling was conducted for three seats each. The third phase saw four seats go to polls, while eight seats were contested in the fourth phase. The fifth and sixth phases included voting for seven and eight seats, respectively. The remaining nine seats?Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jayanagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin, and Kolkata Uttar?will vote in the seventh and final phase.
A total of 1.63 crore voters?83.19 lakh men, 80.20 lakh women, and 538 belonging to the third gender?are eligible to exercise their franchise in 17,470 polling stations on June 1. The state is witnessing a triangular contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc coalition of Congress-CPI(M).
