Thaindian News

Kolkata, April 27 (IANS) Brisk polling was reported in West Bengal Wednesday with 15 percent ballots cast within the first two hours of the third phase of assembly elections being held in 75 constituencies of three districts, including this metropolis.

A total of 14,419,669 people in Kolkata and the neighbouring districts of North and South 24-Parganas are eligible to elect their representatives from among 479 contestants - many of them stars from the field of politics — including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Kolkata has 11 constituencies, North 24-Parganas has 33 while South 24-Parganas 31.

“Polling is going on peacefully. There are no reports of any untoward incidents. We have received some complaints from Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Trinamool Congress candidates and acted on them,” said state Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta.

Election Commission sources said 15 percent votes were cast in the first two hours since polling started at 7 a.m.

“There were some complaints of Electronic Voting Machines not functioning in a few booths. They have been replaced,” said Gupta.

Among the early voters was former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who went with his wife Renu to a booth in Rashbehari constituency in South Kolkata.

In a virtual replay of the high turnout in the first two rounds, long queues were seen outside polling booths in the three districts, which include the cosmopolitan industrial belt and the populated areas of the world’s largest mangrove forest Sundarbans.

The first and second phase of elections saw around 85 percent turnout.

Main opposition Trinamool Congress has high stakes in this round, with the area regarded as its citadel going by the last poll results. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool and its alliance partner Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist nominees were ahead in 66 of the 75 assembly segments.

Other than Bhattacharjee, the fate of 11 other state ministers, including Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, Housing Minister Gautam Deb, Transport Minister Ranjit Kundu, Leader of Opposition Partha Chatterjee, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) secretary general Amit Mitra, will be decided in 17,792 polling booths.

A number of celebrities nominated by the Trinamool, including film stars Debashree Roy, Chiranjeet (Dipak) Chakroborty, theatre personality Bratya Basu, and singer Anup Ghoshal are also trying their luck in the third phase.

Ruling Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is contesting in 61 constituencies, Forward Bloc (7), Communist Party of India (3), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) (3), the Trinamool (70) and the Congress (5).

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has put up candidates in all the 75 constituencies, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 51.

Over 600 companies of security forces have been deployed and more than 3,000 polling stations have been identified as super sensitive. Around 1.4 lakh people have been identified as vulnerable to threats from miscreants.

Polls to the 294-member assembly, which started April 18, will end May 10. The counting of votes will take place May 13.