Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee’s move stalling the deployment of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra has drawn flak from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) which on Tuesday directed the Railways Ministry to comply with the orders issued recently.

The Ministry is learnt to have conveyed to the Railway Board Chairman that RPF deployment for election duties in Maharashtra had been mandated by the Election Commission of India and it was too late for the Railways to say no to the move. The MHA is also learnt to have told the Railways that stalling the move could invite action from the Election Commission.

The MHA has also told the Railways that deployment of Railway Protection Force for poll duties was a routine practice and that the ministry should not object to it. Further, being an “armed force of the Union”, the RPF could be deployed for duties anywhere in the country, the Railways have been told.

As first reported byThe Indian Express, the MHA had recently directed the Railways Ministry to provide 21 companies (around 2,600 personnel) to be deployed for the Maharashtra assembly elections being held from October 1 to 13.

While RPF was making the required arrangements to deploy these personnel, Banerjee stepped in arguing that Railways could not spare so many security force personnel for election duty since it required these men to tackle the ongoing festive season and the threat posed by Naxalites.

Banerjee’s move had raised many eyebrows given the fact that the RPF Headquarters was prepared to “spare” these men for the election duty and had, in fact, starting assembling personnel from various units to be sent to Maharashtra.