West Bengal Assembly Election: Mamata Banerjee visited all 30 constituencies during her campaign. (Proceedings)
New Delhi:
Voting for the high-decibel elections for the West Bengal legislative assembly begins today and will continue in seven more phases until April 29. People will vote for their choice from among 191 candidates in 30 constituencies in this phase. The Electoral Commission has installed 10,288 booths where people can vote in this phase.
Most of these 30 seats are distributed in the tribal-dominated districts of Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Purba Medinipur (Part 1) and Paschim Medinipur (Part 1). Bengal has a total of 294 assembly seats.
26 of the 30 electoral districts where voting will take place today had voted for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the last assembly elections. But the BJP swept them away in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP unleashed the combined power of its key leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an intense campaign in the constituencies that will go to the polls today. Interior Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister Smriti Irani were among the top BJP leaders who campaigned in several of the 30 seats, including districts of Purulia, Jhargram and Bankura.
Actor Mithun Chakraborty, who joined the BJP weeks ago, campaigned for the party’s candidates in Jangalmahal and Bankura.
Ms. Banerjee visited all 30 constituencies during her campaign. He held a rally in some of the 30 seats even after sustaining a leg injury during a political event in Nandigram, from where the elections are held.
A commonly seen line of attack between the two rivals, BJP and Trinamool Congress, is the promise of “ashol poriborton (real change) “and building a”Sound bangla (Prosperous Bengal) “.
Ms. Banerjee often attacked the BJP as a party of “outsiders”. She used the slogan “khela hobe (play in)” in a hit to PM Modi during rallies.
The key candidates in the first phase are: Sujoy Banerjee from Trinamool, Sudip Mukherjee from BJP and Partha Prathim Banerjee from Congress in Purulia; June Malia from Trinamool, Shamit Dash from BJP and Tarun Kumar Ghosh from CPI (M) in Medinipur; Dinen Ray from Trinamool, Tapan Bhuiya from BJP and Saddam Ali from CPI (M) from Kharagpur, among others.
The BJP has presented candidates in 293 seats and has left one for its ally All Jharkhand Students Union, headed by Ashutosh Mahto. Ms Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has allocated three seats to Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and will compete for the remainder. Gurung’s party is seen to be strong in the hills of North Bengal.
Congress, the CPI (M) and the Indian Secular Front have made an alliance. Congress is contesting Abbas Siddiqui’s 91, Left 137 and ISF 28.
The vote count is May 2.
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