Record 91.98% turnout in Bengal enclaves

 The Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta, on Thursday, said that the poll percentage stood at around 80 per cent till 5 pm. Many people cast their votes in the dying hours as the poll percentage surged more than 10 per cent in the last one hour.

 In Mekhligang enclaves, 909 people have voted out of the total 988 voters while in Sitalkuchi, 1733 have exercised their democratic right out of the total 1898 voters. In the enclaves situated in Sitai assembly constituency, 1257 voters have cast their votes out of 1396 and in Dinhata, the figure is 508 out of 548. 

From the total of 9776 people, who got their voting rights following the transfer of enclaves into India, around 8992 have cast their votes in the assembly elections this year.

 It was evident that the polling percentage would go above 85 percent as there were long queues in most of the polling stations of these constituencies. People were enthusiastic about voting for the first time and came out of their homes in large numbers. The votes of these enclave dwellers could be a decisive factor in the elections. 

 Meanwhile, the EVMs have been kept under tight security in around 300 strong rooms all over the state. 78 companies of Central Forces have been deployed in the strong rooms. Senior IT officials of the Election Commission of India will hold video conference with the senior election officials in the state to discuss the modalities of uploading of poll statistics into the Commission’s database.