The state will receive only 18 CRPF companies from the Centre as against the 130 it had sought for the upcoming civic polls. This leaves West Bengal with a total of 36 companies of paramilitary forces — the other 18 being provided by other states on the request of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Meanwhile, state election commissioner Meera Pandey will preside over a meeting on Tuesday to review the present situation in the state. Home Secretary Samar Ghosh, Director General of Police (DGP) Bhupinder Singh and Kolkata Police Commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti will be among those attending the meet.

The state election commission has already requested the state government to provide at least two armed policemen for each of the 10,698 polling stations.

“We will be able to do that (provide personnel during polls). We did not get paramilitary forces earlier too and managed with our own police force. While we can make arrangements this time around too, we are waiting for more forces from the Centre,” said the Home Secretary.