Amid reports of sporadic violence, brisk voting wasrecorded on Tuesday in the third phase poll in 31 Assembly constituenciesspread across three districts -- South 24 parganas, Hooghly and Howrah.
According to Election Commission data, 35 per cent pollingwas recorded till 12pm much on the lines of phase-1 and phase-2 polls held onMarch 27 and April 1 respectively.
There were reports of violence from Goghat in Hooghlywhere BJP alleged that a mother of a BJP worker was killed by the Trinamoolgoons last night. Similarly, Trinamool Congress alleged that people were notbeing allowed to vote in different booths of Sasta, Dagira, Babuldanga andDiamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas.
The Hooghly district, where 7 constituencies are goingfor the polls, recorded the highest percentage of 17.35 per cent followed byHowrah district where 15, 52 per cent poll was recorded in the 8constituencies.
The 16 constituencies of South 24 Parganas recorded thelowest percentage of 12.81 in the first three hours of polling.
Earlier this morning, the Election Commission suspended asector officer after three EVMs and four VVPAT machines were found at Trinamoolleader Goutam Ghosh's residence.
According to reports, sector officer Tapan Sarkar, whowas in-charge of Sector 17 in Uluberia seat, had spent the night at arelative's house who happened to be Goutam Ghosh. The EVMs and VVPAT machineswith Sarkar were part of the reserve stock. The commission has said that theseEVMs won't be used for voting on Tuesday.
A three-cornered battle is being witnessed in the 31Assembly seats.
The total number of electors in these constituencies are78,56,474 that includes 4,049 service voters, 39,97,218 male electors and38,59,013 female voters. The total number of polling stations are 10,871including 8,480 main and 2,391 auxiliary booths. The number of 80 plus votersare 1,26,177 while 64,083 are PWD (Persons with Disabilities) voters.
Prominent candidates among them are BJP leader SwapanDasgupta, Trinamool Congress Minister Ashima Patra and CPI-M leader KantiGanguly.