Calcutta, Nov. 1: The Election Commission is considering appointing retired Union and state government employees to man booths in Bengal in the next Lok Sabha elections.

After a video conference with district magistrates on poll preparations today, chief electoral officer Debashis Sen said at Writers’ Buildings: “There will be 60,000 polling booths in the state, up from 48,000. We would require over 3 lakh personnel. We are considering if retired central and state government staff can be deployed, besides serving employees.”