Heavy polling was recorded in the first four hours in the seventh phase of Bengal Assembly elections where people of 34 constituencies across five districts are out to exercise their franchise. According to the initial data released by the Election Commission, the state recorded a voter turnout of 17.95 per cent with Murshidabad district recording the highest polling of around 21 per cent.
According to the data, South Kolkata where polling is being held in 4 constituencies, recorded the lowest of 13.07 per cent. Malda with 6 constituencies recorded a polling of 18.85 per cent followed by South Dinajpur where 18.77 per cent polling was recorded from the 6 constituencies and the 9 constituencies of West Burdwan recorded a polling of 17.24 per cent.
As far as individual constituencies are concerned, Gazole in Malda district recorded the highest polling of 20.56 per cent and Pandaveshwar in West Burdwan recorded the lowest turnout of only 11 per cent.
However, there were some small incidents reported in the first four hours of polling though overall the polling process remained peaceful. The first incident was reported at 9.50 a.m. in Rashbehari constituency in South Kolkata where Trinamool Congress candidate Debashis Kumar alleged that he was not allowed to enter the booth by the central forces.
At 10.03 a.m. BJP candidate from Raninagar Masuhara Khatun alleged attack on her car by TMC activists. In both the cases administration reacted promptly and took the situation under control swiftly.
The total number of electors including service voters in these constituencies are 81,96,242 with 42,00,447 male electors and 39,88,239 female voters. The total numbers of polling booths are 11,376 that include 8,634 main and 2,742 auxiliary booths. The number of 80 plus voters are 1,01,069 while 50,919 are PWD (Persons with Disabilities) voters. The total number of service electors is 7,335, third gender voters are 221 while overseas voters are 33.
Though primarily 36 assembly constituencies were scheduled for the election but it was reduced to 34 after the death of two Sanjukta Morcha candidates of Samsergunj and Jangipur assembly constituencies in Murshidabad, the elections were deferred to May 16.
The Election Commission has deployed 26 general observers, 9 expenditure observers and 6 police observers for the 7th phase of polls. There will be webcasting facilities in 50 per cent of the booths and micro-observers will be deployed in 20 per cent of the booths.