First phase polling in WB today

About 97.42 lakh voters who will be exercising their franchise, will decide the fate of 364 candidates including ten sitting ministers. However, the main contest is between CPM-led Left Front and the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance. BJP has also fielded candidates in 49 seats.

A total of 12,133 polling centres have been set up in the six districts. Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kumar Gupta said central and other security forces have reached the areas and started flag march and area domination. Nearly 548 companies of Central forces have been dispatched to guard all the polling booths where for the first time, there will be no state police or home guards and they would be deployed to manage the voters’ queue, he added. Inter-state and international borders have been sealed.

All political parties sent their top guns for campaigning. If Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee hit the campaign trail on April 10 in North Bengal, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi campaigned in Matigara-Naxalbari, Malbazar and Malda, AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed election meetings in Jalpaiguri and Malda districts on April 15.