Cooch Behar to be under ECI scanner in first phase of LS polls in Bengal

Kolkata, April 16 (IANS) Because of its history of poll-related violence, Cooch Behar, one of the three Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal that will be going to polls in the first phase on April 19, will be under the scanner of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

How seriously the ECI is taking the affairs in Cooch Behar is evident from the fact that Anil Kumar Sharma, the Special Police Observer for the polls in West Bengal, will reach Cooch Behar on Tuesday.

He will be there till the end of the election on April 19, supervising the entire security arrangements.

Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CE0), West Bengal said that in the next two days Anil Kumar Sharma will supervise the security arrangements at all the sensitive booths in the constituency.

“He will monitor the entire process and will be stationed at Cooch Behar only,” said a CEO office insider.

In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls Sitalkuchi, one of the seven Assembly constituencies under this Lok Sabha seat, witnessed major poll-related clashes, following which the CAPF personnel had to resort to firing in which four persons were killed.

As per the ECI’s records, 85 per cent of the polling booths in Cooch Behar District are sensitive. That is precisely why maximum deployment of CAPF has been done in Cooch Behar at 112 companies.

The other two constituencies, namely Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar, which are also going for polls in the first phase, will have CAPF deployments of 75 and 63 companies respectively.

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