Voting begins in second phase of West Bengal, Assam assembly polls

Voting for 30 seats in West Bengal’s second phase Assembly elections and the second phase of Assam assembly elections began on Thursday amid tight security and all Covid-19 protocols, reports Indian news agency IANS quoting officials.

In West Bengal, all eyes on Nandigram where Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is locked in a fierce battle with confidante-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP.

In Assam, men, women and the first-time voters in large numbers queued up in front of the polling stations well before the voting for 39 of the total of 126 assembly seats opened at 7:00am.

The polling would continue till 6:00pm without any break in 13 districts.

Assam chief electoral officer Nitin Khade said that 73,44,631 voters, including 36,09,959 women, are eligible to cast their votes across 10,592 polling stations including 556 all women managed polling stations.

Around 31,000 Central Armed Police Force personnel, along with thousands of state security force personnel, have been deployed to maintain law and order during this phase in which 42,368 polling personnel are engaged.

In Thursday’s balloting, the electoral fate of several Assam ministers including fisheries, excise, environment and forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya, minister of state for health and family welfare Piyush Hazarika, state irrigation minister Bhabesh Kalita and deputy speaker Aminul Haque Laskar will be sealed.

Suklabaidya is contesting from the Dholai seat for the seventh time on a BJP ticket, Hazarika from Jagiroad and Kalita from Rangia.

Former Congress minister Gautam Roy is contesting from Katigorah on a BJP ticket, while former deputy speaker Dilip Kumar Paul, who resigned from the BJP after he was denied ticket and was subsequently expelled, is contesting as an Independent from Silchar constituency.

In West Bengal, voter turnout for the second phase of polling notched as much as 15.72 per cent in about three hours as over 7.5 million electorate began voting in 30 Assembly seats.

Long queues were witnessed outside most of the polling booths till 10:00am.

The approximate voter turnout trend till 10:00am in Bankura district was 16.05 per cent, Paschim Medinipur 17.33, Purbo Medinipur 16.91 and South 24 Parganas 8.69 per cent, according to the Election Commission’s voter turnout App.

Many, including the first-time voters, reached polling stations well before the voting began to decide the fate of 171 candidates, -- 152 male, 19 female -- in the fray in these elections across four districts of South 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur and Bankura.

Polling will continue till 6:00pm.

Hours before the voting began, a Trinamool Congress worker, Uttam Golui, was hacked to death in Keshpur, West Midnapore outside a party office.

The Trinamool has accused the BJP of murdering Golui.

The Election Commission said that 75,94,549 voters -- 38,80,955 men and 37,13,508 women -- are eligible to cast their votes across 10,620 polling stations.

Nearly 700 Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) companies have been almost deployed in all the districts to ensure a completely peaceful and fearless environment for polling.

All eyes are set on the high-profile Nandigram constituency, where the chief minister is pitted against Adhikari, her one-time loyalist-turned-rival.

Banerjee is seeking a third term in office from Nandigram Assembly constituency of Purbo Midnipur district.

For her and the BJP the battle for Nandigram is a prestige fight because it was the 2007 agitation against land acquisition in the region which catapulted her to the Chief Minister’s post and to the centre stage of politics in the state, paving the way for the Trinamool’s victory in the 2011 Assembly polls that ended 34 years of Left Front rule.

In the high stakes poll battle this time, a victory is a must for Banerjee so that she can lead the government and keep together her party, which is faced with exodus.

For Adhikari, it is a battle for political survival as a defeat would be a devastating blow and might also put a question mark on his political graph in his new party. the BJP.

A victory would not only establish him as one of the tallest leaders in Bengal but would also push him a few miles ahead of others in the Chief Ministerial race in case the BJP is voted to power.

Covid-19 protocols for the voters, including social distancing and thermal screening are being maintained.