The Election Commission today said deployment of central forces during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal will be much stronger than what it was during the 2009 elections to ensure free, fair and peaceful polls in the state.
"Rest assured we shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the poll is free and fair and there is no intimidation," Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi told a press conference after meeting the national and state recognised political parties, besides reviewing the law and order situation in the state.
"The state has over 77,000 polling booths, nearly 25 per cent of which are highly sensitive. Many others are in the second level of critical nature as per vulnerability study. All of them will be covered by central forces," Zutshi said.
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Stating that booths in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas would also be covered under central forces, he said rest of the booths would be brought under domination by the central forces, besides deployment of the state armed forces.
Zutshi, however, declined to divulge details about the total number of central forces to be deployed this time saying "a large number of deployment will be there".
