Campaigning ends for final phase of Bengal polls amid voter roll concerns

Shah says central forces to be deployed for 60 days more

The campaigning for the second and final phase of the West Bengal Assembly polls ended on Monday evening. More than 32 million electors across 142 assembly segments and seven districts will be eligible to cast their vote on Wednesday. 

 

But the fate of 1.29 million electors deleted during the judicial adjudication process of the special intensive revision (SIR) still hung in balance. In the polling for 152 seats in the first phase on April 23, only 139 electors were added to the supplementary electors list out of the 2.7 million deleted during the judicial adjudication process.

 

Of the 142 seats that go to polls on Wednesday, 111 fall in the Presidency region, the bastion of the Trinamool Congress. 

 

 

These seats are in the five districts of North 24 Parganas (33), South 24 Parganas (31), Nadia (17), Howrah (16), and Kolkata (11). 

 

In the 2021 Assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress won 96 of these, the BJP 14 and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) one seat, respectively. 

 

The two parties are uncertain of the eventual outcome because of the SIR deletions being some of the highest in these districts in percentage terms. The winning margins in 65 to 70 constituencies across Bengal were thin, and 25 of these fall in Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, Howrah, and Hooghly. The deletions under the SIR in North 24 Parganas have been 1.26 million names, in South 24 Parganas over 1.91 million, and in Kolkata nearly 697,000.

 

The first phase of the West Bengal assembly elections recorded a voter turnout of 93.19 per cent, the highest ever in the state.

 

In an audio message and open letter to the electors of Bengal at the end of hectic campaigning across the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday evening said that he will be back in the state to “celebrate the oath-taking ceremony of a BJP CM.”

 

In Kolkata, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said central forces would remain deployed in West Bengal for 60 more days after the assembly elections, asserting that people should vote without fear of “Didi’s goons” in the final phase of polling. “So far, there has been no major incident of violence. Not a single death has taken place. The elections are being conducted peacefully,” Shah said.

 

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led a roadshow in south Kolkata on Monday afternoon, which includes her Bhabanipur assembly seat, where she is pitted against her BJP rival Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP. He defeated her in the 2021 elections in Nandigram. Banerjee was subsequently elected from Bhabanipur in a byelection.

 

Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Monday alleged that the BJP is distributing money in Assembly constituencies to mobilise support, and asked TMC cadres to accept it but work for his party. He alleged that large sums of money were being smuggled into the state. Urging those whose names have been deleted from voter rolls not to be afraid, he said, “After our government is formed on May 4, by May 31 your names will be enrolled in the voter lists.”