Y-plus security involves an escort vehicle, a personal security officer and a security detail of one guard commander and four guards at the residence.
With polls in Chhattisgarh around the corner, the Centre is set to clear a proposal granting Y-plus security cover to Kamal Chandra Bhanj Deo of the erstwhile royal family of Bastar. In this region, the BJP, in the 2013 state polls, won only five of the 12 seats and lost the remaining by narrow margins.
Home Ministry officials said Deo (34) will get security cover by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and that the proposal was based on the threat assessment by state and Central agencies.
Y-plus security involves an escort vehicle, a personal security officer and a security detail of one guard commander and four guards at the residence. The guards will have an officer of the rank of sub-inspector and three policemen with automatic weapons.
While Deo’s unverified Twitter profile describes him as the chairperson of Chhattisgarh State Youth Commission, he is being wooed by the BJP and Congress in Chhattisgarh, where polls are scheduled later this year.
BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh had earlier appointed Deo as the chairperson of the State Youth Commission, a position, officials said, is equivalent to Minister of State (MoS).
Bastar has seven tehsils and 12 Assembly seats. In 2008, the region voted BJP, which won 11 seats. In 2013, however, the BJP lost seven of the seats they held earlier. While the Congress candidate in Bastar won with 57,000 votes, the BJP got 38,774 votes in Bastar in the 2013 elections.
Similarly, at Kondagaon, the BJP lost by a margin of nearly 5,000 votes when its candidate got 49,155 votes while the Congress received 54,290 votes, as per Election Commission of India (ECI) data.
In all, the BJP won 50 seats in the 91-member Assembly while the Congress got 39 seats in 2013. Deo’s ancestors, the Kakatiyas, moved to Bastar from Warangal in Andhra Pradesh some 600 years ago and still holds sway among tribals and Telugu-speaking Maoists in the state, an official said.
His grandfather, Pravir Chandra, was shot dead by the police, in undivided Madhya Pradesh in 1966, for allegedly leading a tribal mob against the state. Before Chandra was killed, he was preparing for the 1967 election.