One point two hundred thousand Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are to be deployed in Bihar to make the upcoming Assembly elections free, fair, and peaceful in all 243 constituencies of the state.
The rollout, whichh is managed by the Election Commission and the ministry of Home Affairs is in response to even greater demands by the Bihar government of the same strength of as many as 1,800 CAPF companies, as a sign of its insistence on a strong law and order set up in the two-phase poll process scheduled to be conducted on November 6 and 11. The pre-poll security operations including domination of the areas and flag marches have already reached Bihar with almost 500 units and additional reinforcements are anticipated to arrive before the central authorities give the final consent.
Majority of the CAPF will be based on the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and then the companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), and Railway Protection Force (RPF). Every firm is usually comprised of 70-80 people and the overall deployment may witness nearly 100,000 CAPF staff in collaboration with local Bihar Police especially in those polling stations that are sensitive and vulnerable.
To increase transparency and trust among the votes, important electoral related activities such as nominations filing, EVM storage, and even the voting process will be monitored and videotaped under CCTV. CAPF personnel will assist in watching critical check posts and fixed check points and CCTV will be installed in strategic border locations to provide extra vigilance.
The comprehensive security campaign is aimed at allaying the fears of voters and participating in the election despite the safety and electoral integrity fears. The CAPF, together with local officers, will also strive to stop any form of disturbance and make the conduct during both the polling days, and subsequent vote counts on November 14 without a hitch.
The scale of CAPF deployment Is also unprecedented and was an important step in terms of the logistical difficulty as well as the political significance of the polls this year.
