Over 85 per cent of the voters on Saturday exercised their franchise in 50 constituencies in Murshidabad, Nadia and Birbhum in the second phase of six-phased Assembly elections in West Bengal. The elections were totally peaceful with no major law and order related incident was reported. No person was killed or injured in any
poll related violence and 35 persons were arrested, including 32 people who were taken into preventive custody. The voting took place under a stringent security arrangement with the deployment of the Central paramilitary forces in all polling stations.
State chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta said, “The polling was peaceful with no major incident of law and order problem. Till 5 pm, 77.42 per cent of 93,51,325 voters in Murshidabad, Nadia and Birbhum cast their vote. Since, polling is continued in many polling stations even after 5 pm for long queue of voters in those booths, we expect that the voters’ turnout would cross 85 per cent finally.”
According to the sources at the Election Commission (EC), the total voter turnout in these three districts is 85.85 per cent as per compiled report at 8.30 pm. In Nadia, the voting percentage was 86.92, while in Murshidabad and Birbhum it stood at 85.28 per cent and 85.49 per cent, respectively.
In the 2006 Assembly elections, the polling percentage in these three districts was 85.33 per cent, while in 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the voter turnout was 84.86 per cent.
“There was 11,532 polling stations in Murshidabad, Nadia and Birbhum. We have deployed 54,505 polling officials, including the reserved officials to conduct polling in those booths. We have replaced 91 electronic voting machines (EVMs) due to malfunctioning, but the polling process has not been affected in those booths,” Mr Gupta informed.
Live webcasting arrangement was made from 150 polling stations. The commission also installed digital cameras and video cameras in 966 and 321 polling booths, respectively.
In addition, 1,242 micro observers were deployed by the commission at booth level.