Last phase of voting for West Bengal Assembly elections underway

The second and final phase of voting in the West Bengal Assembly elections is underway on Wednesday. 

In this phase, the electoral fate of candidates contesting in a total of 142 seats across seven districts of the state will be decided.

There are 1,448 candidates in the fray for this phase, of whom 220 are women. The total number of voters stands at 3 crore 21 lakh 73 thousand 837. Polling is taking place from 7 am to 6 pm.

Voting is being held in the following districts: Nadia (17 seats), North 24 Parganas (33 seats), South 24 Parganas (31 seats), Kolkata (11 seats), Howrah (16 seats), Hooghly (18 seats) and East Burdwan (16 seats).

A total of 41,011 polling booths have been established for the smooth conduct of the election, of which 39,301 are main booths and around 1,700 are auxiliary booths.

Various political parties, including the Trinamool Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, the CPI (M)-led Left Front and the Indian Secular Front (ISF), are participating in the electoral battle. 

However, in the majority of seats the principal contest is between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

Among the prominent candidates in this phase are Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Suvendu Adhikari, Firhad Hakim, Arup Biswas, Indranil Sen, Rupa Ganguly, Rudranil Ghosh, Hiranmoy Chatterjee, Papiya Adhikari, Kalyan Dasgupta, Meenakshi Mukherjee, Dipsita Dhar and many others. 

The ISF candidate Pirzada Naushad Siddiqui is also drawing significant attention in the Bhangar constituency.

Tight security arrangements have been put in place for the polls. As many as 2,348 companies of central paramilitary forces and 38,297 state police personnel have been deployed. 

A special control room has been set up in New Town. In addition, around 1,700 criminals have been arrested in the last 48 hours as a precautionary measure.

The India-Bangladesh border has been sealed for the duration of the elections.

It is worth recalling that in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress had secured 123 of these 142 seats, while the BJP won 18 and the ISF claimed one seat. 

In the first phase of polling held on April 23, voter turnout stood at 93.19 percent.

The results of the West Bengal elections, along with those of the Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, will be declared on May 4 following the counting of votes.