North Bengal to decide fate of 364 candidates

Bengal assembly election, 2011

Phase-I covers 54 of the 294 assembly constituencies.

The fate of 364 candidates including ten ministers in the Left Front government will be decided in the polling which will take place in 54 Assembly segments spread over six North Bengal districts in the first phase on Monday.

The three constituencies in the Darjeeling Hills will go to polls in the first phase with three hill parties - Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the GNLF and the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League having campaigned in full force.

Campaigning for votes ended for the polls in 54 constituencies spread over six north Bengal districts - Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, North Dinjapur, South Dinajpur and Malda on Saturday.

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi addressed campaign meeting at Matigara-Naxalbari, Malbazar and Malda on Thursday criticising the Left Front for its "misrule" and said this election will bring an end to the CPI(M)-led government.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani also addressed a campaign meeting in Jalpaiguri district on Thursday. BJP leaders Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley were among the national-level BJP leaders who addressed campaign meetings.

Advani said if people of Bengal were for a good government they should vote for BJP candidate.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee led from the front as the outcome of polls in North Bengal would have a bearing on her party's prospects and help in shaking off the tag that her party remained strong only in South Bengal.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sunil Kr Gupta today said that preparations for the first phase of polling in north Bengal on April 18 was almost over.

Gupta said in the first phase, 97.42 lakh voters were involved in the six districts.

A total of 12,133 polling centres were opened in the districts.

He said altogether 364 candidates were in the fray out of which 49 were from BJP, 32 from CPI(M), 27 from INC, 26 from TMC, 38 from BSP, nine from RSP and 10 from Forward Bloc.

Gupta said 16 polling booths were located in hilly terrain and polling personnel had already been despatched.

For other booths, despatch would start tomorrow.

Regarding deployment, he said all central forces and those from other states were being deployed and had already started area domination and inter-state and international borders had been sealed.

On the EC's voters' list for use as an alternative identification route, he said the idea had been scrapped.