76% turnout in last phase of Bengal polls

Roughly 76% of the electorate voted in the final phase of the West Bengal assembly election on Thursday, ending a month-long poll season that began with a tense political battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) but was quickly overshadowed by surging Covid-19 infections.

Voting in three districts and a part of Kolkata saw stray violence in some areas but a sharp spike in Covid cases kept many voters indoor. The provisional turnout of 76.07 % is the lowest of eight phases and came on a day the state posted its highest cases and deaths, 17,403 and 89, respectively.

Results will be declared on May 2, along with those for Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry, where polls ended on April 6.

“The polling was peaceful today, apart from a few incidents of violence,” chief electoral officer Aariz Aftab said. Daily infections in the state have zoomed 80 times since February 26, when poll dates were announced.

The number of candidates and voters in the last phase was 2,116 and 72, 811, 254, (the number seems wrong) respectively. The turnouts for the first to the seventh phases were 84.63%, 86.11%, 84.61%, 79.90%, 82.49%, 82% and 76.90%, respectively.

The BJP is looking to wrest power from the TMC, which is looking for its third consecutive term. Polling for two seats will be held on May 16 due to the death of two candidates because of Covid-19

On Thursday, polling was held in six seats in Malda, 11 each in Murshidabad and Birbhum and seven in the state capital. Fresh voting was also held at booth No 126 in the Sitalkuchi constituency of Cooch Behar district where four men were killed in firing by central armed police forces (CAPF) after local villagers allegedly attacked the forces during polling on April 10.

Though no major violence was reported, the vehicles of Anirban Ganguly and Tarakeswar Saha, the BJP candidates from Bolpur and Nanoor in Birbhum district, respectively, were vandalised. TMC and BJP workers clashed at Maniktala and Beliaghata in north Kolkata.

In Birbhum district, which is known for political violence and illegal bomb making units, crude bombs were recovered from several locations at Nanoor and Dubrajpur constituencies. There were clashes between BJP and TMC workers at several of the 11 constituencies that went to the polls.

“The attack proves that the TMC government’s days are over. It does not matter that they smashed the windows of my car. What matters is that even women from that area voted for us,” said BJP national secretary Anupam Hazra.

Chandranath Sinha, the TMC candidate from Bolpur, accused Ganguly of inciting people. “Polling was peaceful all over Birbhum. Trouble broke out only at places that Ganguly visited,” said Sinha.