Comments
Fifty constituencies will go to polls tomorrow in the second phase of Assembly polls in three districts of West Bengal in which over 93.33 lakh voters would cast ballots to elect representatives from among 293 aspirants.
The three districts, where elections would be held are, Murshidabad having 22 seats, Birbhum 11 and Nadia 17. In all 11,531 polling stations have been set up.
Tight security arrangements have been made in all the three districts to ensure free, fair and peaceful election.
Police sources said about 4,800 security personnel including central para-military personnel have been deployed in the three districts.
Defying the party’s warning, four rebel Congress candidates backed by party MP, Mr Adhir Chowdhury, are contesting as independents in Murshidabad district and an equal number of dissidents are in the fray in Nadia. All of them have been suspended by the party.
The Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, and the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, an MP from Murshidabad, and the Trinamool Congress chief, Ms Mamata Banerjee, campaigned in the districts urging voters not to vote for any rebel candidate and utilise the opportunity to oust the Left Front Government.
Prominent Left leaders who campaigned included the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in Nadia besides the CPI(M) politburo member, Mr Biman Bose, and the Housing Minister, Mr Gautam Deb. The BJP veteran, Mr L.K. Advani, and the party chief, Mr Nitin Gadkari, also took part in the campaigning.
The main poll plank of Trinamool Congress-Congress combine is for ushering in ‘paribartan’ (political change) in the state ruled by CPI(M)-led Left Front for the last 34 years.
The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has ridiculed the slogan for change.
Prominent candidates whose fate would be decided are the Union Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee’s son, Mr Abhijit Mukherjee from Nalhati, the Panchayat minister and CPI(M) leader Mr Anisur Rehman, former High Court judge Mr Nure Alam Chowdhury contesting on Trinamool Congress ticket from Murarai and Mr Rukbanur Rehman, brother of computer graphics teacher Mr Rizwanur Rehman from the Chapra constituency.
CPI(M) has fielded candidates in 31 seats followed by TC in 29 and Congress in 21 seats. BJP has put up nominees in all the 50 constituencies and Bahujan Samaj Party in 27 seats.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.