Bengal Election Voting: Voting on 142 seats in West Bengal today, sharp contest between TMC-BJP

Kolkata: Voting for 142 seats in the second and final phase of West Bengal Assembly elections started from 7 am on Wednesday and will continue till 6 pm. In the first phase, voting was held on 152 seats on April 23, in which 93.19 percent voters cast their votes. In the second phase of elections, 1448 candidates are in the fray for a total of 142 assembly seats. In this phase, 41001 polling stations (39301 main and 1700 auxiliary polling stations) have been created, in which the number of rural polling stations is 25083 and the number of urban polling stations is 14218 and 258 are model polling stations.

In this phase, 8845 polling stations are being managed entirely by women. The second and final phase of voting will be held in at least eight electoral districts including Kolkata North, Kolkata South, Howrah, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Hooghly and East Bardhaman assembly constituencies. The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements to ensure that the voting is free from violence and intimidation and is conducted in a free and fair manner and there has been heavy deployment of Central Armed Police Forces in sensitive areas. The Election Commission has deployed 2,407 companies of central forces. Voters have started arriving at all the polling stations since morning to exercise their franchise.

A total of 1,448 candidates are trying their luck in the second phase. There are a total of more than 3.22 crore voters in this phase, including service voters, which include 1.64 crore males, 1.57 crore females and 792 transgenders. There are a total of 6.44 crore voters in West Bengal. The main contest in the state is between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress and Left parties are also trying their best. Bhawanipur seat remains the hottest seat in this election, where the main contest is between Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and opposition leader and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Subhendu Adhikari.

After voting, the electronic voting machines will be sealed and taken to the ‘strong rooms’ of the counting centres, where security personnel will be deployed 24 hours a day. Since the activation of the Election Seizure Management System on February 26 in the poll-bound state, till April 27, a total of cash and goods worth Rs 510.10 crore have been seized, which includes cash worth Rs 30 crore and 48.46 lakh liters of liquor, whose value is estimated at Rs 126.85 crore. Apart from this, narcotics worth Rs 110.12 crore, precious metals worth Rs 58.28 crore and gifts worth Rs 184.85 crore are included. Counting of votes for both phases will take place on May 4.