Mira Pande

Calcutta, May 20: The state election commission today said it would “most probably” issue its matching notification on the panchayat polls this week after the state government ignored its request to rethink the distribution of districts.

If the polls are held under the government’s 9-4-4 district allocation formula over the three phases, as set out in its first notification on Friday, the estimated shortfall of security personnel for the nine-district first phase would be about 50,000. The state may then have to decide whether to swallow its pride and requisition central forces.

The state government issued a revised notification this afternoon accepting a commission request to advance the last phase by a day from July 10 but making no changes to the allocation of districts, apparently under express orders from chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“We will most probably bring out our notification by the end of this week,” state election commissioner Mira Pande said as she left her office in the evening. “Everything will take place according to the directions of the court.”

The division bench has set a July 15 deadline for the election process to be over.

A senior commission official told The Telegraph: “We are very serious about holding the polls on time. If the government refuses to change its stand on district allocations, we would probably have to issue the matching notification to honour the division bench ruling.”

Under a formula set out in the ruling, however, about one lakh armed and unarmed police would need to be posted at the booths during the first phase on July 2 if nine districts vote on that day, commission officials said.

However, the state cannot offer more than 45,000-50,000 personnel for poll duty from its combined strength in Calcutta Police and Bengal Police, government officials said.

The gap, therefore, stands at 50,000-odd, as Pande pointed out this afternoon at a meeting with home secretary Basudeb Banerjee, state director-general of police Naparajit Mukherjee and additional director-general (law and order) Banibrata Basu.

Home department officials admitted that it would be “difficult” to offset a deficit of 50,000 just by requisitioning police personnel from other states — the Bengal government’s preferred route.

“To get such a huge contingent, forces would have to be acquired from 20-odd states, which is almost impossible,” said a Writers’ official.

Sources said the Bengal government had begun talks with four states: Odisha, Assam, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Jharkhand, plagued by its own law-and-order problems, has turned down Bengal’s request for personnel, they added.

Writers’ officials said the preliminary feedback from other states did not suggest Bengal could fill the gap in a hurry. The commission, too, has made it clear that it will not accept the deployment of the National Volunteer Force, a back-up force of civilians, on poll duty.

Besides, security personnel would be needed not only to guard the booths and polling stations but also for other tasks such as patrolling, area domination, and protection of strong rooms and sector offices.

The commission had sought 800 companies of central forces — which would translate into about 80,000 personnel — but the state has so far been opposed to the deployment of central forces.

If the first phase of voting has to be held on July 2, the commission must issue its matching notification by June 3, but Pande’s statement today suggested the poll panel might not want to wait that long.

Security fears

It’s the security concerns over a nine-district phase that had prompted the commission to seek a rethink of the state’s 9-4-4 formula. The commission favours a 6-5-6 or 6-6-5 break-up.

Commission sources said the nine districts earmarked for the first phase accounted for 36,000-odd of the total 57,000 booths in the 17 poll-bound districts, with over 25,000 “sensitive” and “highly sensitive” booths.

The division bench had directed the deployment of two armed and two unarmed personnel at every “highly sensitive” booth, two armed personnel at every “sensitive” booth, one armed and one unarmed cop at every “less sensitive” booth and one armed cop at every “normal” booth.

“For these 36,000 booths, including 25,000 sensitive and highly sensitive ones, the force requirement will therefore be around one lakh,” a commission official said.

Writers’ sources said the commission’s request for a revised district allocation, sent on Friday, was rejected on Saturday.

“Madam (Mamata) categorically told panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee and panchayat secretary Saurabh Das to change the date for the last phase but do nothing about district distribution,” a government official said.

According to the revised notification, polling will take place on July 2, 6 and 9 and the votes will be counted on July 13. The last phase was brought forward because the Rath Yatra festival falls on July 10 and the holy month of Ramazan starts on July 11.

The nine first-phase districts are North and South 24-Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Burdwan, East and West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. The remaining eight districts have about 21,000 booths, including 7,000-odd “sensitive” and “highly sensitive” ones.