61% polling till 3 pm in West Bengal

Over 60% of the voters today exercised their franchise till 3 pm in 54 Assembly constituencies in North Bengal in the first phase of polling, with no report of any untoward incident.

"Polling was 61% till 3 pm. There is no report of any untoward incident so far," Election Commission office sources said here.

Coochbehar district had the highest turnout at 66% while the lowest of 57% was recorded in North Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri, they said.

Polling in Darjeeling district was 64%, Malda 59% and South Dinajpur 60%.

"The polling is peaceful," Additional Chief Electoral officer N K Sahana told PTI.

Security personnel lathi-charged photo journalists when they followed minister Sailen Sarkar inside a booth at the Malda Women's College in Malda district ignoring a warning not to do so, official sources said.

The presiding officer of a polling booth in Hariram constituency in South Dinajpur district was removed for speaking to minister Narayan Biswas over phone, he said.

Presiding officer of a booth at Kumargram in Jalpaiguri district, Maheswar Rai, suffered a heart attack and was rushed to Alipurduar Hospital.

An electorate of 97.42 lakh will decide the fate of 364 candidates including 11 ministers - Ashok Bhattacharya, Kshiti Goswami, Biswanath Chowdhury, Kironmoy Nanda, Narayan Biswas and Srikumar Mukherjee.

Congress leader Debaprasad Roy and Trinamool Congress Darjeeling district president Gautam Deb are also in the fray.