Around 91.41 per cent of the 3.21 crore electors voted till 7:00pm of the second phase of polling in West Bengal amid sporadic violence, reports The Hindu.
Meanwhile, West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal has said that repolling is likely to be announced in booths where EVMs are found to have been tampered with.
The first phase of the election was held on 152 seats across 16 districts on April 23, when record polling of 93.2 per cent was reported. Officials of the Election Commission of India and representatives across political parties have urged electors to come out and vote in large numbers.
About 2,321 companies of Central forces have been deployed for voting in the second phase of the election. Kolkata, where 11 Assembly seats are going to the polls, has witnessed the highest deployment, with 273 companies of Central forces.
A total of 142 general observers, 95 police observers, and 100 expenditure observers have been deployed for the second round of polling.
More than 2,400 people have been detained over the past three days on suspicion of creating a ruckus on the day of polling, according to EC officials.
Campaigning concluded on Monday, and a silent period is being observed, but a war of words erupted over the deployment of Indian Police Service officer Ajay Pal Sharma as a police observer in South 24 Parganas district.
In a video shared on social media, Sharma is seen warning the family of Jahangir Khan, Trinamool Congress candidate from the Falta Assembly constituency.
‘If he thinks of himself as ‘Singham’, then we are also ‘Pushpa’, Khan said in response to Sharma’s remarks. Amidst the war of words between the candidate and the police observer, the EC transferred Sourav Hazra, Joint Block Development Officer of the constituency.
In another development, the EC has allowed 1,468 voters excluded during adjudication to cast their votes, after tribunals cleared their name. Six voters were also deleted by the tribunal for the second phase.
Out of the 3.21 crore electors eligible to vote, 1.64 crore are male, 1.57 crore are female, and 792 are transgender voters. The elections are being held in the backdrop of the Special Intensive Revision, which has seen the deletion of over 90 lakh voters.
The key candidates contesting in the second phase of election are chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and the leader of the opposition in the State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, who are facing off in Bhabanipur.
Several ministers of Banerjee’s Cabinet are contesting in the second phase, including Firhad Hakim from Kolkata Port, Aroop Biswas from Tollygunge, Shashi Panja from Shyampukur, Bratya Basu from Dum Dum, and Chandrima Bhattacharya from Dum Dum Uttar.
The BJP has fielded Ratna Debnath, mother of the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder victim, from Panihati, Matua leader Subrata Thakur from Gaighata, and senior BJP leaders Tapas Roy from Maniktala, Swapan Dasgupta from Rashbehari, and Ritesh Tewari from Kashipur Belgachhia.
Among the key candidates of the Left Front in the second phase are Kalatan Dasgupta from Panihati, Minakshi Mukherjee from Uttarpara, and Dipsita Dhar from Dum Dum Uttar. The votes will be counted on May 4.
Mamata accused the BJP of trying to ‘rig’ the West Bengal assembly elections, alleging that central forces and election observers were acting at the behest of the saffron party.
The BJP, however, dismissed her allegations, accusing her of ‘trying to create confusion sensing public anger against the TMC’.
Visiting several polling booths in her Bhabanipur Assembly constituency where voting is underway, Banerjee alleged that democratic norms have been severely compromised by the authorities this Assembly election.
