WB polls: People come out in large numbers to vote in initial hours

Braving heat and Covid-19, people came out in large numbers to exercise their franchise recording 16.04 per cent of polling in the first hours in the last phase where 35 constituencies spanning across four districts went to polls on Thursday.

According to the data released by the commission though Malda and Murdshidabad recorded high polling, North Kolkata and Birbhum recorded a low voter turnout till 9 a.m.

Malda where six constituencies are going for the polls recorded 18.97 per cent polling followed by Murshidabad where 18.86 per cent of polling was recorded from the 11 constituencies in the fray.

Kolkata North where there are seven constituencies recorded a polling of only 12.89 per cent and 13.44 per cent of polling was recorded in the 11 constituencies of Birbhum.

So far as individual constituencies are concerned Sujapur in Murshidabad district recorded the highest voter turnout of 21 per cent till 9 a.m. and Dubrajpur recorded the lowest polling percentage in the first two hours. This constituency in Birbhum district recorded only 6 per cent of polling in the first two hours.

An analysis of the assembly seats on the parameters of Lok Sabha election shows that Trinamool Congress had a lead in 19 constituencies, BJP had an edge in 11 constituencies and the rest of the 5 seats were in control of Congress. The Left Front hardly had any impression in these 35 seats.

A close look at the basic facts shows that the total number of electors including service voters in these constituencies are 84,93,255 of which 43,70,693 are male electors and 41,22,403 are female voters.

There are 11,860 polling booths spread across 5,837 polling station location where 9,216 are main booths and the rest 2,644 are auxiliary booths. The number of 80 plus voters are 1,12,440 while 72,094 are PWD (Persons with Disabilities) voters. The total number of service electors in this phase are 14,981, third gender voters are 159 and the number of overseas voters is only 10.

Election is going on in booth number 126 of Sitalkhuch assembly constituency in Coochbehar district where four persons were killed during the polling in the fourth phase on April 10.

The Election Commission has already announced that 5,433 booths of the total 11,860 booths are extremely sensitive and so have deployed 24 general observers, nine expenditure observers and nine police observers for the eighth phase of the polls. There will be webcasting facilities in 5,565 per cent of the booths and micro-observers will be deployed in 20 per cent of the booths.

The Commission will deploy 646 companies of central forces during the last phase with Birbhum having the highest deployment of 225 companies for its 11 constituencies.

Two hundred and fifteen companies of central forces will be used for its 11 constituencies in Murshidabad, 110 companies for the 6 constituencies of Malda while North Kolkata will have the lowest deployment of 96 companies for its 7 constituencies

--IANS

saibal/in