Agartala, March 21 (IANS) The elite Tripura State Rifles (TSR), which has previously carried out election-related duties in more than 12 states, will be deployed in the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam, officials said here on Saturday.

A senior Tripura Police official said that, following a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), ten TSR companies, comprising 778 personnel, will be sent to poll-bound West Bengal and Assam to provide security before and during the Assembly elections.

Voting for the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in two phases — on April 23 (152 seats) and April 29 (142 seats). Meanwhile, polling for the 126-member Assam Assembly will take place on April 9. The counting of votes is scheduled for May 4.

The official further said that two ad hoc battalions of the TSR, each comprising five companies, will be deployed in Assam and West Bengal to carry out election-related duties.

"The TSR (India Reserve Battalion) will be deployed in Assam and West Bengal as part of the Central forces. Two senior Commandants, Amarjit Debbarma and Alok Bhattacharjee, will lead the TSR battalions," the official told IANS, requesting anonymity.

He added that the MHA had initially asked the Tripura government to provide 25 TSR companies for deployment in the two poll-bound states. However, the state government was reluctant to spare that many personnel in view of two crucial upcoming elections within Tripura — the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls and the by-election in the Dharmanagar Assembly constituency in North Tripura district.

The elections to the 30-member politically significant TTAADC will be held on April 12, while the by-election in the Dharmanagar Assembly constituency is scheduled for April 9.

The TSR has 14 battalions, of which 11 are categorised as India Reserve Battalions. These units (IR Battalions) can be deployed in any state across the country if required by the MHA.

During the Lok Sabha elections held between April 19 and June 1, 2024, TSR personnel were deployed for polling duties in Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha, and Himachal Pradesh.

In addition to providing security during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, the India Reserve battalions of the TSR have previously undertaken election duties in almost all states, ensuring security during both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Trained in counter-insurgency operations, TSR personnel have demonstrated exemplary performance in Tripura, playing a key role in curbing the four-and-a-half-decade-long insurgency in the northeastern state.

Two TSR battalions, comprising around 2,000 personnel, including officers, have been posted in the national capital under the Delhi Police since 2019, and with South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) in Chhattisgarh since 2022.

Apart from these deployments in Delhi and Chhattisgarh, one battalion is currently providing dedicated security to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s drilling sites in Tripura.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujitchakrabortyne@gmail.com)

--IANS

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