High voltage campaign ends for third phase of assembly polls in Bengal

In the third phase of polling, elections will be held in three districts consisting of 31 assembly seats.

The districts include Howrah Part I, South 24 Parganas Part II and Hooghly Part 1 on April 6.

The campaign was marked by war of words among the ruling Trinamool Congress, the BJP and the Left-Congress-ISF combine Sanyukt Morcha.

Star campaigners of BJP, Trinamool Congress and Samyukta Morcha were busy in rallies and roadshows. Apart from this, candidates were focused on street Corner meetings. Small gatherings were taking place in towns and villages.

The party workers were knocked the doors to provide information about their candidates. Paintings of party slogans and election symbols are being seen on the walls in rural areas, while houses and avenues are dotted with party flags.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Cabinet Minister Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, Dharmendra Pradhan, Uttar Pradesh/Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, West Bengal BJP in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh were the star campaigners for the BJP.

Actors-turned-politicians such as Locket Chatterjee, Subhendu Adhikari, Roopa Ganguly, Babul Supriyo, Manoj Tiwari, Srabanti Chatterjee, Paayel Sarkar and Hiran Chatterjee also campaigned for the BJP.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Youth Congress president Abhishek Banerjee, state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and senior Left leaders were campaigned for their respective fronts.

West Bengal assembly election is going to be a high stake event as both BJP and TMC have unleashed challenge against each other.

Even months before the polls, BJP has been aggressively campaigning in the state, targeting the incumbent Banerjee-led TMC government.

Several big names of the TMC have left their party and joined BJP ahead of the election, questioning the conduct of the Mamata Banerjee led state government.

Names like Suvendu Adhikari, Rajib Banerjee, Baishali Dalmiya, former Howrah mayor Rathin Chakraborty and actor Rudranil Ghosh, others have joined the BJP ahead of elections.

The campaign was characterised by a no-holds barred tirade of allegations and counter-allegations and ruling Trinamool Congress going all out to retain power for the third successive term.

The Trinamool Congress supremo called upon the people to defeat the BJP while the Prime Minister urged voters to exercise their franchise in his party's favour.
It is for the first-time when Modi-led Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has hogged the limelight in the state. The BJP is aiming to make a debut as the ruling party in Bengal. If the BJP comes to power, then this 2021 assembly election will be remembered for bringing a paradigm shift in the political narrative of West Bengal.

The thirty one Assembly Constituencies of West Bengal going to polls in Third Phase are: 1. - Basanti (SC), 2 - Kultali (SC), 3 – Kulpi, 4 – Raidighi, 5 - Mandirbazar (SC), 6 - Jaynagar (SC), 7 - Baruipur Purba (SC), 8 - Canning Paschim (SC), 9 - Canning Purba, 10 - Baruipur Paschim 11. - Magrahat Purba (SC) 12. Magrahat Paschim 13. Diamond Harbour, 14 – Falta, 15 – Satgachhia, 16 - Bishnupur (SC), 17 - Uluberia Uttar (SC), 18 - Uluberia Dakshin, 19 – Shyampur, 20 – Bagnan, 21 – Amta, 22 – Udaynarayanpur, 23 – Jagatballavpur, 24 – Jangipara, 25– Haripal, 26 - Dhanekhali (SC), 27 – Tarakeswar, 28 – Pursurah, 29 - Arambag (SC), 30- Goghat (SC), 31 – Khanakul.

In the second phase, 205 candidates will be vying for the 31seats in which 13(6%) are female candidates.

The assembly election in West Bengal will be held in eight phases.

The EC has made elaborate security arrangements with the deployment of central and state forces to ensure a free fair and peaceful poll.

The EC, which has already warned that any act of violence would not be tolerated during elections time, has reiterated with a fresh warning and has empowered the security forces to act in self-defence in case any threat to their life by the miscreants during third phased polls.

The commission has already sent of which 21 and 68 companies to Baruipur PD and Sundarban PD respectively for maintaining pre-poll law and order. The rest of the forces will reach on April 4.

Apart from that, another 166 companies will be deployed for the eight Assembly constituencies of Hooghly and 133 for seven constituencies of Howrah rural areas.
In Hooghly and Howrah, there are a total of 5,120 polling booths for which the Commission has allotted 298 companies.

Additionally, another 11 companies of central forces have been sanctioned for Howrah Police Commissionerate area and four for Kolkata to maintain law-and-order situation. These two areas will vote in the later phases.

According to the ECI sources, there are presently 800 companies of central forces in the state and another 200 will arrive after April 8 taking the total count of forces to 1,000, the highest number of forces deployed in any kind of election in the state so far.

The commission also ordered the forces of the state and central to enhance coordination between them. According to the ECI sources, of the 396 companies, 151 have been deployed in Baruipur, 113 in Diamond Harbour and 132 in Sundarban.
The remaining five phases are on April 10, April 17, April 22, April 26 and April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.