Campaigning ends for fourth phase of LS polls in Bengal

The high-voltage campaigning by different political parties for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha election in eight constituencies of West Bengal slated for April 29 came to an end Saturday evening.

The constituencies which go to polls on Monday are Baharampur, Krishnagar, Ranaghat(SC), Burdwan East(SC), Burdwan-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur(SC) and Birbhum.

An electorate of 1,34,56,491 will decide the fate of 68 candidates in these eight constituencies, the EC said.

All the eight seats, which are spread across four districts, will see a four-cornered contest between Trinamool Congress, BJP, Congress and the Left Front.

The Election Commission will deploy a total of 580 companies of central forces, which will cover all the polling booths in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies to ensure free and fair polling, officials said.

The campaign for eight parliamentary seats where polling will be held Monday saw roadshows and poll meetings by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

TMC has fielded Apurba Sarkar(David) against the sitting Congress MP, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in Baharampur seat. The Left Front constituent RSP has nominated Id Mohammad, while the BJP has nominated Krishna Joyardar.

In Krishnagar, the TMC has fielded Mahua Moitra against BJP's Kalyan Chaubey, a footballer. The Congress has nominated Intaj Ali Shah and the CPI(M) Shantanu Jha.

Ranaghat (SC) will see TMC's Rupali Biswas locking horns with BJP's Jagannath Sarkar. Congress has nominated Minati Biswas and the CPI(M) Rama Biswas.

In Burdwan East (SC), TMC's Sunil Kumar Mondal will contest against Paresh Chandra Das of BJP. The Congress has fielded Siddhartha Majumdar and the CPI(M) Iswar Chandra Das.

Mamtaz Sanghamita is the TMC candidate from Burdwan-Durgapur seat against BJP's S S Ahluwalia. The Congress has nominated Ranajit Mukherjee and the CPI(M) named Abhas Ray Chaudhuri for the seat.

In Asansol union minister and BJP sitting MP Babul Supriyo will contest against TMC's celebrity candidate Moon Moon Sen. The CPI(M) has nominated Gouranga Chatterjee and the Congress Biswarup Mondal for the seat.

In Bolpur(SC) seat, TMC's Asit Kumar Mal will contest against Ramprasad Das of BJP. The CPI(M) has fielded Ramchandra Dome and Congress Abhijit Saha.

Celebrity candidate Satabdi Roy is the TMC candidate from Birbhum seat against BJP's Dudh Kumar Mondal. The Congress has nominated Imam Hossain and the CPI(M) named Rezaul Karim for the seat.

The polling personnel have already left for the 15,277 booths in the eight parliamentary constituencies.

Besides general election observers and expenditure observers, the poll panel has for the first time deployed a special police observer and a special observer.

In another first, VVPAT will be used in all polling booths along with the EVMs, EC sources said.