In West Bengal, Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar will go to polls in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on 19th April. The Election Commission is taking all steps to conduct elections in a free and fair manner. An adequate number of central forces have been provided. At present 150 companies of CAPF are deployed in the state, and 27 companies will arrive by early April. 15 companies of state armed police will also be deployed.

Our correspondent reports that the deployment of force will be looked after by a committee of the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, CAPF Force Coordinator and state police nodal officer. Inter-state and intra-state naka checking is also being held.  CAPF has already started route marches for area domination and confidence building.

Till Friday in Coochbehar, 4 nominations had been filed. In Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri parliamentary constituencies 3 nominations each had been filed.

Except Trinamool Congress and SUCI, no other parties have fielded candidates for all the 42 parliamentary constituencies in the state. BJP has not announced the candidate at Jalpaiguri seat till now. In Coochbehar, Union Minister of State Nishith Pramanik and in Alipurduar seat BJP’s chief whip Manoj Tigga have been fielded by BJP. Left Front and Congress have announced candidates for all seats going to polls in the first phase.

The Election Commission has appointed new DGP Sanjay Mukherjee IPS and also appointed four district magistrates in Purba Bardhaman, Birbhum, Jhargram and Purba Medinipur districts. Earlier the DMs were non-cadre IAS.