Grand finale: About 1.63 cr voters to cast ballots today for 9 seats
Kolkata: The air is charged with anticipation as the electorate prepares to step on the grand stage exquisitely prepared for the culminating chapter of the 2024 Lok Sabha (LS) elections in Bengal.
This Saturday (June 1), under an extensive veil of security, approximately 1.63 crore eligible voters will cast franchises across nine Lok Sabha Constituencies.
The destinies of 124 aspiring candidates shall be irrevocably determined in this seventh and culminating phase of the elections, a phase distinguished by its inclusion of the most seats among all six preceding phases.
Altogether 1,63,40,365 electorate, including 80,20,326 women will exercise their franchise in 17,470 polling stations spreading over three districts — Kolkata (North and South), North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas to elect nine winners.
There are around 83,19,481 male voters and 538 third-gender voters in all nine seats.
According to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) data, among the total electorate in the seven phases, around 2,71,596 voters belong to the age group 18-19 while 1,155 are centenarians. There are around 1,37,172 voters who are above 85 and 1,04,396 Persons with Disabilities (PwD) voters.
As many as 124 candidates, including 23 women are in the fray for the nine Parliamentary constituencies — Kolkata North, Kolkata South, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, Mathurapur, Jaynagar, Dum Dum, Barasat and Basirhat. Of the 124 contestants in the seventh phase of polling, Kolkata South has the highest number of 17 candidates, followed by Jadavpur 16 and 15 each in Basirhat and Kolkata North Parliamentary seats. About 967 companies of Central Forces and 33,292 state police personnel will ensure free and fair polling that will take place from 7 am to 6 pm on Saturday.
The highest deployment of Central Forces of 246 companies will be there within the jurisdiction of Kolkata police while 160 companies of Central Forces will be deployed in the Baruipur Police district.
The Basirhat Police District shall witness the deployment of 116 companies of Central Forces. Notably, the area of Sandeshkhali, which has recently gained attention for unfortunate reasons, falls within the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat.
Diamond Harbour Police district will have a deployment of 110 companies of Central Forces while Barasat Police district 81 and Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate 59.
Sunderbans police district which faced the wrath of Cyclone ‘Remal’ recently will have 114 companies of Central Force.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP have fielded their candidates in all the nine LS constituencies going to poll on Saturday. The CPI(M) has fielded in six and its Left ally Forward Bloc in one and Congress one. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the TMC won all these nine seats among its 22.
According to the ECI, among the 17,470 polling stations which will go to poll in the final phase on Saturday, around 3,748 are critical polling stations. Basirhat LS seat has the highest number of critical polling stations of 1,096 while Jayanagar LS seat has 686 critical polling stations. Dum Dum has 572, Mathurapur 420, Jadavpur 323, Barasat 270, Diamond Harbour 198, Kolkata South 117 and Kolkata North 66.
Trinamool Congress’ heavyweight Abhishek Banerjee is contesting from Diamond Harbour while seasoned Parliamentarian and three-term TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay is contesting from Kolkata North. Another TMC veteran Sougata Roy is contesting from Dum Dum. TMC’s Mala Roy is contesting from Kolkata South and Saayoni Ghosh from Jadavpur.
Around 400 companies of Central Forces will remain deployed in Bengal till June 6 while the results would be announced on June 4.
