18.3% polling in first two hours of voting in WB

Over 18% polling was recorded in the first two hours of voting in 75 constituencies in Kolkata and its neighbouring North and South 24-Parganas districts of West Bengal today.

"The turnout so far is good. In the first two hours polling was 18.3%. Barring replacement of only a few EVMs there was no report of any untoward incident," Additional CEO N K Sahana said.

While some EVMs were replaced during mock polling before the real polling process started, a few had to be replaced after polling began causing minor delays, he said.

An electorate of 1.44 crore would decide the fate of 479 candidates including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and 11 ministers in this phase.

Over 6000 central para-military personnel have been deployed for polling in 11 seats in Kolkata, 33 in neighbouring North 24-Parganas and 31 in South 24-Parganas districts, which have 17,792 polling booths.

Besides Bhattacharjee, other prominent candidates are Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, Housing Minister Goutam Deb, Transport Minister Ranjit Kundu, the Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, former FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra and actor Debashree Roy.

The six-phase election will end on May 10.