West Bengal News: Election Commission To Deploy Over 480 CAPF Companies Ahead Of Assembly Polls

West Bengal News: Election Commission To Deploy Over 480 CAPF Companies Ahead Of Assembly Polls

Election Commission of India will deploy 480 CAPF companies across West Bengal from March 1 to secure EVM strong rooms and counting centres. Officials including Manoj Agarwal met at the Calcutta High Court following a Supreme Court of India directive on the SIR process.

Aritra SinghaUpdated: Saturday, February 21, 2026, 09:56 PM IST
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Central armed police forces gear up for large-scale deployment across West Bengal to strengthen election security arrangements | Representational Image

Kolkata, Feb 21: Ahead of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections, the Election Commission will initially deploy 480 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) across the state beginning March 1.

Phased arrival of central forces

According to sources, an initial 240 companies of central forces will come to the state on March 1, and on March 10 the remaining 240 companies will arrive.

The sources also mentioned that the central forces will guard the EVMs in the strong rooms and will also guard the counting centres during the election process.

Meeting at Calcutta High Court over SIR issue

Meanwhile, following the Supreme Court’s order, DGP Peeyush Pandey, CS Nandini Chakraborty and CEO Manoj Agarwal visited the Calcutta High Court to hold a meeting with the Chief Justice over the SIR issue.

Poll body assures transparency

Talking to the media, Manoj Agarwal said that the poll body is ready to give all support required to verify the documents of the people.

“No names of genuine voters will be deleted. The move is aimed at ensuring more transparency in the SIR process. The process of disposal of pending matters will continue till late tonight,” said Agarwal.

District-wise data to be released

According to sources, it has been decided in the meeting that district- and Assembly-wise data will be released in all 294 Assembly constituencies to the stakeholders.

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Supreme Court directive

Notably, the Supreme Court on Friday had directed the Calcutta High Court to depute judicial officers for the SIR process in Bengal for resolving the logical discrepancies and unmapped cases within a stipulated time.