The Home Ministry wants to deploy over a lakh jawans of central forces to make the upcoming Bihar assembly elections peaceful. Sources in New Delhi claim that Amit Shah's Home Ministry has ordered the deployment of an additional 500 company jawans of central forces to Bihar. Earlier, it was announced that 500 companies of the central forces would be sent to maintain law and order in various parts of Bihar in the context of assembly elections. Each company has an average of 1000 jawans. According to this calculation, 1000 companies would have one lakh jawans.
According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India, voting will be held on 6 and 11 November with vote counting on 14 November. Apart from these three days, the decision to send an additional 500 companies of central forces has been taken to ensure that there is no unrest anywhere in Bihar before and after the elections, according to government sources. Among the 1000 companies of central forces, CRPF will have 250 companies, BSF 141 companies, CISF 85 companies, ITBP 75 companies. The remaining 449 companies will come from SSB and RPF.
No one can say with certainty whether assembly elections have been held in any other state recently with such a large deployment of central forces. Deploying 1000 companies of central forces means there will be one central force jawan for every 80 voters. The Home Ministry is unwilling to take any further risks regarding overall security after receiving some specific inputs from intelligence sources.
Security is being strengthened in those areas of Bihar where Maoists still have even a slight influence. CRPF will act as the nodal agency to maintain coordination among the 1000 companies of central forces deployed in Bihar. They will maintain liaison with the Election Commission of India and the Home Ministry.
