Bengal:79.09 per cent polling recorded till 5.30pm,PM cancels state visit

In West Bengal, polling for the sixth phase of Assembly elections passed off smoothly on Thursday. The average voter turnout was registered at 79.09 per cent till 05.30 pm. The people were seen standing in long queues in front of the Polling Stations right from the beginning. The polling, which began at 7.00 am, conducted till 6.30 pm in the 43 Assembly Constituencies spread over four districts going to polls today. The state is witnessing eight-phase elections.

Among the four districts, Nadia recorded the highest voter turnout of 82.70 per cent till 6pm,and  the Barrackpore constituency in North24 Parganas witnessed the lowest voter turnout of 67 per cent. As many as 306 candidates, including 27 women, were in the fray in this phase of the assembly elections. Long queues were seen outside most polling booths with security personnel asking everyone to adhere to Covid-19 safety protocols amid the surge in the pandemic.Over 1.03 crore voters, including 50.65 lakh women and 256 of the third gender, will be deciding the fate of these candidates across 14,480 polling stations in the sixth phase. Polling for the seventh and eighth phases will be held on April 26 and 29 respectively while the counting of votes will take place on May 2.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his visit to Bengal on Friday to campaign for the ongoing state election citing meetings to review the Covid situation in the country. Home Minister Amit Shah also cut short his campaign today, cancelling two of his three Bengal meetings to return to Delhi for a Covid meeting. According to the BJP, all its top leaders have called off the rest of their campaign. PM Modi was scheduled to address four election meetings in Bengal on Friday.