Asmany as 79.79 per cent voters exercised their franchise in ten hours of pollingfor 30 Assembly seats in West Bengal on Saturday while the voter turnout wasaround 72.14 per cent in Assam in the same period.
Morethan half of the 73-lakh electorate in Bengal's 30 Assembly constituencies havecast their ballot and sealed the fate of 191 candidates who are in the fray onthe first day of the eight-phase elections in West Bengal where polling isunderway in five districts.
Atleast 21 female aspirants are contesting elections in West Bengal while 23 inAssam.
InBengal, the serpentine queues showed people are aware of the importance of thecrucial poll that is seeing a bitter battle between the ruling TrinamoolCongress-led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP that has pitchedevery high-profile leader into campaigning in West Bengal.
Asper the latest figures from Bengal, the approximate voter turnout trend till 5p.m. in Bankura was the highest at 80.03 per cent, Jhargram at 80.55 per cent,Purbo Medinipur at 82.42 per cent, Paschim Medinipur at 80.16 per cent andPurulia at 77.13 per cent, according to the Election Commission's voter turnoutApp.
Dataalso showed 72.14 per cent voting in 22 districts in Assam till 5 p.m. Therewas 77.16 per cent voting in Biswanath, 71.10 per cent in Bokakhat, 73.29 percent in Charaldeo, 72.85 per cent in Dhakuakhana, 70.76 per cent in Dhansiri,71.10 per cent in Dhemaji, 70.14 per cent in Dibrugarh, 71.34 per cent in Gohpur,75.16 per cent in Golaghat, 72.49 per cent in Jonai, 71.49 per cent in Jorhat,74.19 per cent in Kaliabor, 70.43 per cent in Lakhimpur, 77.19 per cent inMajuli, 70.67 in Margherita, 78.20 per cent in Nagaon, 64 per cent in Naziraand 71.63 per cent in Sadiya. The voting percentage in Sivasagar was 77.72 percent, 67.91 per cent in Sonitpur, 70.63 per cent in Tinsukia and 70.92 per centin Titabor, till 5 pm.
InBengal's East Midnapore, two security personnel were reportedly injured in afiring incident that took place early Saturday at the Satsatmal, BhagwanpurAssembly constituency ahead of voting. Tension prevailed in the Tulsidi villagewhere the incident took place. Security forces are keeping a close vigil in thearea, surrounded by forests that were once Maoist hideouts.
Ofthe five assembly elections scheduled in four states and one Union Territory,West Bengal has the most number of seats and voting spread over eight phases, amaximum. The other seven phases to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will beheld on April 1, April 6, April 10, April 17, April 22, April 26 and April 29.Results will be declared on May 2.
In Assam, voting began across11,537 polling stations mostly covering eastern Assam's 12 districts at 7 a.m.
Theballoting will continue till 6 p.m as the Election Commission extended the timeby an hour in view of the Covid-19 induced situations. A total of 8,109,815voters, including 4,032,481 females, are eligible to cast their ballots.
Accordingto the election officials, over 30,000 Central Armed Police Forces along withthousands of state security forces have been deployed to maintain law and orderduring this phase.
Theofficials said that to maintain social distancing and other Covid-19 protocolsand due to technical snags of the EVMs in some polling stations, the casting ofvotes caused little slow.
Nountoward incident has been reported so far from any of the 12 districts whereballoting is underway.