The first phase of West Bengal polls started in all nine seats in Purulia, four each in Bankura and Jhargram, six and seven seats in Paschim Medinipur, and in Purba Medinipur respectively.
Surprisingly, 79.79% of West Bengal voter turnout was recorded on Saturday. The first phase of Assembly elections started after days of high-decibel campaigning. Subsequently, the campaigning days saw defections, violence and bitter exchanges.
Voters in 30 constituencies will choose their representatives in this phase.
Meanwhile, voting started at 7 am and continued till 6.30 pm. The coronavirus patients and those who have symptoms caste their vote between 5 pm and 6.30 pm.
More than 73 lakh voters will choose 91 candidates. These candidates will contest in five districts. These districts mostly fall under the Jungle Mahal region, which was once the stronghold of Maoists.
Polling started in all nine seats in Purulia, four each in Bankura and Jhargram, six and seven seats in Paschim Medinipur, and in Purba Medinipur respectively, which is the home ground of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari.
The Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have fielded candidates in 29 seats each, while the Left-Congress-Indian Secular Front alliance will jointly contest on all 30 seats.
The first phase of elections is expected be a straight fight between the BJP and ruling TMC. It is said that the saffron party is likely to have an upper hand here.
Trinamool Congress approaches Election Commission
Soon after the elections began, a delegation of Trinamool Congress leaders approached the Election Commission. They raised some serious concerns when they met the Chief Electoral Officer in Kolkata.
According to TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, BJP changed the old age system of appointing booth agents wherein the agent must be a voter of the concerned booth. Instead, BJP demanded to change this criteria and allow anyone to become the agent at a poll booth. Hence, they did not accept it.
However, Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh refuted all these allegations.
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Meanwhile a BJP delegation also met the Election Commission to report that the Trinamool Congress supporters attacked on the car of Adhikari’s brother, Soumendhu Adhikari.
The fight
The fight is between the BJP and the TMC. Top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, campaigned to dislodge Mamata Banerjee and her party.
Key contests
Suvendu Adhikari, once a close confidante of Mamta Banerjee and his father switched to BJP.
Tight security
The Election Commission made tight security arrangements to avoid any untoward incidents on Saturday.
It is reported that, 11 paramilitary personnel will be deployed per booth in Jhargram.
Another 14 companies of central forces will be used as Quick Response Teams. Altogether, 144 companies of central forces will be deployed in Jhargram for the election.
Furthermore, an average of six paramilitary personnel will be deployed per booth. One election official said “The central forces will be mainly deployed in and around the booths and the state force will be used for the maintenance of law and order. The constables will be used for queue management.”
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