Assembly polls: About 1,700 CAPF, state police companies to be deployed in 5 states

NEW DELHI — An estimated 1,700 companies of central security and state police forces are expected to be deployed for the forthcoming assembly polls in five states, official sources said on Friday.

Polling in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram will be held between November 7 and 30, and the counting of votes will be on December 3.

Only Chhattisgarh will have polls in two phases – November 7 (20 seats) and 17 (70 seats) – keeping in view the Naxal threat perception.

The sources said the coordination for movement of these security forces will be done by the lead internal security force — CRPF — and the contingents will also have other central armed police forces (CAPFs) like BSF, ITBP, SSB and CISF apart from some special police units of other states.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will deploy about 400 companies apart from its already present units in these states including Chhattisgarh where it has permanently stationed about 25-30 battalions primarily for undertaking anti-Naxal operations.

The ITBP, BSF, CISF and SSB will bring along a collective 600 companies more while the rest manpower will be drawn from various state police forces and India Reserve Battalions (IRBs).

A total of about 1,700 companies comprising around 1.5 lakh personnel are being mobilised, they said.

Some more units will be kept in readiness and will be moved around the first week of November, the sources said.

A CAPF company has an operational strength of about 70-80 personnel while a battalion has about 1,000 troops.

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