The fourth phase of the six-phased Assembly elections went off peacefully with over 85 per cent of the voters exercising their franchise in 63 constituencies in Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapore and Burdwan. No person was killed or injured in any poll-related violence and 68 persons were arrested, including 67 people who were taken
into preventive custody. The Election Commission (EC) had deployed around 600 companies of the Central paramilitary forces in 15,711 polling stations in these districts to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling.
State chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta said, “Till 5 pm, 82.3 per cent of around 1.26 crore voters cast their vote. Since polling is continuing in many polling stations even after 5 pm due to long queue of voters in those booths, the final figure of voters’ turnout would definitely increase.”
In 2006 Assembly elections, the average polling percentage in these constituencies was 83.19 per cent. According to the sources at the EC, the total voters’ turnout in these 63 constituencies is around 85.18 per cent as per compiled report at 7 pm. In Howrah, the voting percentage was 80.28, while in Hooghly it stood at 83.13 per cent. In East Midnapore, the voters’ turnout was 89.50 per cent and for 13 constituencies in Burdwan which went to polls on Tuesday, close to 89 per cent of the voters cast their franchise. Voters in Singur and Nandigram, the epicentres of the land movement, also came to the polling booths in large numbers.
to cast their votes. In Singur Assembly constituency, the polling percentage was 82.65 per cent, while in Nandigram the figure stood at 87.83 per cent as per compiled report of the EC at 7 pm.
Over 90 per cent polling was recorded in several Assembly constituencies, including Khejuri, Chandipur, Patashpur, Maina, Nandakumar, Contai North in East Midnapore; Jamalpur and Burdwan North in Burdwan and Goghat in Hooghly.
The EC replaced 133 electronic voting machines (EVMs) due to malfunctioning but the polling process was not been affected in those booths.
Live webcasting arrangement was made from 200 polling stations. The EC also installed digital cameras and video cameras in 592 and 1,219 polling booths respectively. In addition, 2,479 micro-observers were deployed by in majority of the critical booths. The EC had deployed chief electoral officer of Bihar Sudhir Kumar Rakesh and chief electoral officer of Orissa S. Srinivasan as its special observers for the fourth phase of polling in West Bengal.
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No response by Basu to EC
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
May 3: CPI(M) MP Anil Basu, who was served a showcause notice by the EC for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Ms Mamata Banerjee and given time till 5 pm on Tuesday, had not filed his response, according to the EC. Deputy election commissioner Vinod Zutshi told reporters in the capital that the commission had received an interim reply seeking certain clarifications and documents to which the EC had responded.