Bengal to vote in 7 phases spread across one and a half months
Kolkata: Bengal will vote in seven phases spread over 47 days (about one and a half months) with the process, for 42 constituencies across the state, starting on April 19 for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. The last phase of polling will take place on June 1 and counting of votes is scheduled to take place on June 4.
The by-elections in Assembly constituencies of Bhagabangola will be held during the 3rd phase on May 7, while the Baranagar bypolls will be held on June 1.
The schedule for the Lok Sabha polls across the country, including Bengal, was announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday with the poll panel adhering to its customary North-to-South polling sequence for Bengal.
The 2019 Parliamentary elections in Bengal were also held in seven phases. The ECI also announced by-elections in two Assembly constituencies in the state — Bhagabangola in Murshidabad and Baranagar in North 24-Parganas.
Idril Ali, the sitting MLA of Bhagabangola passed away while Tapas Roy, elected MLA from Trinamool Congress (TMC), defected to BJP a few days ago. The Chief Electoral Officer of Bengal Aariz Aftab informed in a Press conference that three constituencies in North Bengal — Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri will go to polls on April 19, in the first phase. The second phase polls on April 26 will witness Darjeeling, Raiganj and Balurghat going for polls. The third phase on May 7 will see elections in Malda North, Malda South, Murshidabad and Jangipur. The fourth phase polls will be held on May 13 at Berhampore, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman–Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur and Birbhum.
On May 20 during the 5th phase — Bongaon, Barrackpore, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampore, Hooghly, and Arambag are going for polls while in the pen ultimate 6th phase as many as eight constituencies namely Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura and Bishnupur will be witnessing elections.
The last phase on June 1, will have nine Parliamentary constituencies going for polls which include Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin and Kolkata Uttar.
As per sources in the CEO Bengal office, the number of electors in the state till today (March 16) is 75919891 with male and female voters being 38569610 and 37348511 respectively.
As many as 1572455 people are first-time voters which accounts for 2.07 per cent of the total electors.
About 483197 are electors aged 85 years and above while the number of electors aged 100 years and above stands at 3596. The total number of polling stations, including 77 auxiliary stands at 80530. As many as 5942 polling stations will be managed by women while 24 will be managed by PwD (Persons with Disabilities).
“We will have webcasting facilities in at least 50 per cent of the polling stations which means that over 42000 such stations will have such facilities,” Aftab said.
In the Bhagabangola Assembly seat, the total number of electors stood at 277467 with total polling stations being 281. In Baranagar, the total number of electors is 218415 with 252 polling stations.
Sources in the commission indicated that there will be a deployment of 250 companies of Central forces in the initial two phases, with a total of 920 companies currently commissioned, slightly fewer than the 1040 companies requisitioned in the last Assembly polls.
Additionally, the commission has already deployed 150 companies of Central forces across the state to foster confidence and maintain peace.
Trinamool Congress leader Chandrima Bhattacharjee said: “This is unfortunate. We have seen that people lose interest in votes when it becomes lengthy and so we had requested for a single phase but the commission decided not to listen to us. The affluent political parties can use money power to manipulate the elections in their favour while those that are financially weaker lag behind.”
BJP leader, Samik Bhattacharya, however, welcomed the seven-phase elections in Bengal.
