Military-style takeover: TMC condemns large central forces meet in Bengal

An “unprecedented” gathering of all central armed police force (CAPF) units took place in Kolkata last week at the famous Science City. The leaders of the CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, and SSB under one roof with hundreds of employees in a packed conference hall in a state headed for elections made for striking visuals. The ruling Trinamool Congress claims that the gathering resembled planning for a “military-style takeover” rather than a regular meeting, which has only intensified the deadlock between the Center and Bengal.

In fact, such a joint conference of chiefs from all units of the CAPF, which report to the Union Home Ministry, has never been held during any assembly elections in the past, PTI said. A senior CAPF officer even stated that it was a “unusual” meeting held in a poll-bound state to discuss security plans. Voting will be held on Thursday, April 23, and April 29. Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra led the charge, alleging that the Home Ministry was “thinning” CAPF in Kashmir, Manipur and all sensitive places to deploy in Bengal.

“Please don’t make a joke of national security on the 1st anniversary of the Pahalgam attack… BJP and Gyanesh Kumar (Chief Election Commissioner) get top brass of CAPF to Bengal to plan full military-style takeover!” she tweeted.

Even journalists and political experts failed to recollect the last time such a meeting of this scale was held in any other state.

“This is as if the forces are preparing for an all-out war… Don’t remember the last time such a meeting was ever held in any other state. What’s boiling?” said political commentator Chandra Kumar Bose.

Already, the deployment of a record 2.4 lakh CAPF personnel (2,400 companies) in Bengal has caught headlines, with the Centre alluding to the history of poll-related violence in the state. It is the highest-ever deployment in a single state during elections.

This practically corresponds to one CAPF personnel for every 140 voters if we take into account the overall electorate (3.4 crore) in Phase 1. Bulletproof anti-riot vehicles from Jammu and Kashmir have also been deployed in Bengal. These support the army in entering war regions.

Former Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale called it a bid to intimidate voters. For context, he cited that around 290 such companies, roughly 29,000 personnel, were deployed at the peak of ethnic violence in Manipur. The clashes left over 200 people dead and displaced thousands.

“These police forces have deployed armoured vehicles and military-style equipment on the streets of Bengal,” Gokhale tweeted. “This is all part of an attempt to crush the people of Bengal under the boots of outside forces. Modi-Shah have been desperate to capture Bengal and to control our state from Delhi,” he further said.

Even during the 2024 J&K assembly elections, held after 10 years, around 900 CAPF companies were deployed.

While the ECI has not commented to the remarks, the CISF maintained that the meeting was organized to ensure a “strong, technology-driven” integrated security grid for the Bengal elections. Now, if we see the numbers, the CAPF deployment is nearly three times the 845 companies sent during the last Bengal assembly elections. In 2021, polling was held in eight phases. This time, it has been brought down to just two. It partly explains the big deployment as a greater cluster of seats would be going to the polls on two days.