Bengal 1st phase polls: Seven districts under ECI’s special security scanner

Election Commission of India flags seven sensitive districts ahead of West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 phase one, deploying heavy central forces and 2,193 QRTs. Enhanced booth security, strict monitoring, and two-stage voter verification aim to curb violence and intimidation

Kolkata: As West Bengal is heading for the first phase of the two-phase Assembly polls on April 23 for 152 constituencies scattered over 16 districts, all constituencies in seven out of those 16 districts are under the scanner of the Election Commission of India (ECI) over security concerns on polling days.

These seven districts are the two minority-dominated districts of Malda and Murshidabad, North Dinajpur, Cooch Behar, Birbhum, West Midnapore, and West Burdwan. Out of these seven districts, Cooch Behar, Malda, and North Dinajpur are in North Bengal, while the remaining four districts are in South Bengal.

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Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that these seven districts have been identified on the basis of research on booth sensitivity and records of poll-related violence and related casualties in the last 15 years, since 2011.

That is exactly why, a CEO’s office insider added, the concentration of the central forces and Quick Response Teams (QRTs) on the polling day will be maximum in these districts. “At the same time, the majority of the polling booths have been declared as critical or hypersensitive booths,” the CEO’s officer insider pointed out.

Already, in order to ensure absolutely violence-free polls not only within and around the polling stations, but also in other places where there are possibilities of voters’ intimidation, the ECI had ordered the deployment of 2,193 QRTs across the 152 Assembly constituencies where polling will be held in the first phase on April 23.

Murshidabad, which has sustained records of violence in any election in the last 15 years, will have the maximum deployment of 219 QRTs. These QRTs will be constituted only of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel, and each team will have only an officer in the rank of Sub-Inspector of police for route guiding.

In every booth, there will be two-stage voters’ verification before a voter will be allowed to enter the main polling booth. The first stage of verification will be by the CAPF personnel present at the booth, and the second stage of verification will be by the Booth-Level Officer (BLO) concerned.

The Commission, a CEO’s office insider said, had already issued a strong note of caution for the lower rank police officers like Inspectors, sub-division police officers and district superintendents of police against dereliction of duty on polling days and even cautioned that such dereliction will result in strong departmental proceedings, which will impact their Annual Confidential Report (ACR) and post-retirement benefits.