On the 17th of April, polling for the fifth phase of the State Assembly elections 2021 is underway. The voting for the fifth phase elections began at 7:00 A.M., and would continue till 5:00 P.M., for 45 Assembly seats. The 45 seats include 16 seats in North 24 Parganas, 8 each in Purba Bardhaman and Nadia, 7 in Jalpaiguri, 5 in Darjeeling and 1 in Kalimpong district. This is an important phase of the elections for the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) Party, which is aiming to win 32 seats.
In this phase, close to 319 candidates of several parties are in the fray. To ensure smooth voting and avoid violence, the Election Commission of State has deployed 1,071 companies of Central armed security forces and close to 15,790 State police officials were deployed for 45 seats. In the fourth phase of Assembly polls, the security has been increased with extra vigilance.
Over a crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the fifth phases of elections. With this, the State would complete polling for 135 seats of the total 294 Assembly seats in the State.
Updates about the ongoing elections in 45 Assembly constituency of West Bengal 5th phase elections:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting all 45 seats. The ruling TMC is contesting 42 seats with 3 seats given to allies, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM.)
The Indian National Congress (INC) is contesting only 11 seats, with alliance partner CPM contesting 25 seats and the rest given to smaller parties.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the voters in the fifth phase of the West Bengal election to cast their votes in record numbers on Saturday.
Meanwhile, on the evening of the 16th of April, the Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered a 72 hour ‘silence period’, instead of the usual 48 hours ahead of the remaining rounds of voting. The poll body cited the pandemic and added that election rallies and meetings on days when campaigning is allowed would be banned between 7:00 P.M., and 10:00 A.M.
This time, national leaders of the BJP like Amit Shah, Manoj Tiwari, Yogi Adityanath, Ravi Kishan, J.P. Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi did a door to door campaign for the Party in West Bengal. This year, the tough fight for the 294 Assembly seats in West Bengal is between the BJP and the ruling TMC.
West Bengal would vote again a week later for the 6th phase, scheduled on the 22nd of April.
The West Bengal Assembly elections are divided in 8 phases, the last three phases are scheduled on the 22nd of April, 27th of April and 29th of April. The counting of votes would take place on May 2.
