1st phase of Bengal polls today

[1]

The battle for the Writers’ Buildings will begin on Monday with the polling in 54 constituencies in North Bengal in the first phase of the six-phased Assembly elections in West Bengal. Around 97.42 lakh electorates will decide the fate of 364 candidates, including 10 ministers who are in the fray in the first phase of the elections.
In 2006 Assembly polls, the number of Assembly constituencies in North Bengal was 49 which has now gone up to 54 due to delimitation. In 2006, the Left Front had won 36 seats, while the Congress, the GNLF and the Trinamul Congress got nine, three and one seats respectively. However, in 2006, the Congress and the Trinamul Congress had contested separately.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the Left Front had maintained lead in 29 Assembly constituencies out of the 54 Assembly constituencies in North Bengal. In the 2009 Assembly bypolls in four constituencies in North Bengal, the Congress and the Trinamul Congress alliance had won two constituencies, while the Left Front and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-supported Independent won one each.
This time, the Election Commission (EC) has made an unprecedented security arrangement with the deployment of 548 companies of the Central paramilitary forces, besides the state police forces, to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the six districts, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda.
“All polling booths will be manned by the Central forces. In addition, the Central forces have been deployed along with the state police forces in the catchment areas of the polling stations. The Commission has made a very strong security arrangement to ensure that all voters can cast their votes without any fear,” state chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta said.
Micro-observers will be deployed in around 25 per cent of the polling stations while the Commission has made arrangement for live webcasting from around 8 per cent of the booths. “We will also provide digital cameras and video cameras in some polling stations,” Mr Gupta added.
The EC has also kept reserve around 2,500 electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the replacement of any malfunctioned EVM during polling on Monday.