Tripura State Rifles to Deploy 778 Personnel for West Bengal and Assam Assembly Elections

The Tripura State Rifles (TSR), an elite paramilitary force with a track record of election security across more than 12 states, is set to be deployed in the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam.

A senior Tripura Police official confirmed on Saturday that ten TSR companies, comprising 778 personnel, will be dispatched to the two poll-bound states following a formal request from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

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The deployment will be split evenly between the two states — two ad hoc battalions of the TSR, each consisting of five companies, will be posted in Assam and West Bengal respectively.

The battalions will be led by two senior Commandants: Amarjit Debbarma and Alok Bhattacharjee.

The TSR contingent will function as part of the Central forces providing security before and during the elections in both states.

The polling schedules for both states are now confirmed:

• Assam (126-member Assembly): Single phase on April 9

• West Bengal (294-member Assembly): Two phases — April 23 (152 seats) and April 29 (142 seats)

• Vote counting for both states: May 4

The MHA had originally requested as many as 25 TSR companies from Tripura for inter-state election duty — more than double what is ultimately being sent.

The Tripura government pushed back, citing its own pressing electoral commitments on the home front. The state faces two significant polls in quick succession: the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections on April 12, and a by-election in the Dharmanagar Assembly constituency in North Tripura on April 9.

The 30-member TTAADC is politically significant, making its elections a priority that the state government was unwilling to leave under-secured.

The result was a negotiated middle ground — ten companies instead of twenty-five.