By-elections: Over 19.85L voters to decide fate of Asansol & Ballygunge candidates

kolkata: The fate of the two star candidates of Trinamool Congress will be decided on Tuesday as the bypolls to Asansol Lok Sabha seat and Ballygunge Assembly constituency (AC) are set to be held amidst tight security with the Election Commission of India (ECI) mobilising total around 138 companies of Central Forces to ensure free and fair elections.

There are around 2,49,192 general electors in Ballygunge AC while 17,36,475 electors are expected to exercise their franchise in Asansol.

Bollywood's 'Bihari Babu' Shatrughan Sinha is contesting from Asansol seat on Trinamool Congress' ticket while Babul Supriyo has been fielded by the party for Ballygunge. There are around 300 polling stations in Ballygunge assembly constituency out of which 291 are main polling stations and 9 are auxiliary while in Asansol there are 2,102 polling stations out of which 1,878 are main polling stations and 224 are auxiliary. Around 10 candidates are in the fray in Ballygunge while 8 candidates are contesting from Asansol

Lok Sabha seat.

The Election Commission made an additional deployment of 5 companies of central forces on Monday who will be in the state till the election procedure is completed. Till Monday, a total of 133 companies of central forces were deployed in the two constituencies – 70 in Ballygunge and the remaining in Asansol. With the additional deployment of forces the total number of forces utilized in the election machinery

goes up to 138.

There will be one general observer and one expenditure observer deployed by the ECI in Ballygunge while for Asansol there will be 3 general observers and one expenditure observer and one police observer. Around 300 control units, 300 ballot units and 300 VVPATs will be used in Ballygunge while 128 control units, 147 ballot units will be reserved.

Around 2,102 control units, ballot units and VVPATs will be used for Asansol. There are 400 micro observers for Asansol and 40 micro observers for Ballygunge.

Around 60 CCTVs have been installed in Ballygunge to conduct elections smoothly while in Asansol there will be 1,002 CCTVs. There will be a total 234 video cameras in Asansol while there is none in Ballygunge. A total of 680 of the 2,012 booths in Asansol and all 300 booths in Ballygunge have been designated as "sensitive". The by-elections were necessitated as Babul Supriyo resigned as MP of Asansol after joining the TMC from the BJP, while state minister Subrata Mukherjee, who represented Ballygunge, died last year.