34 SEATS BENGAL SEATS TO VOTE IN 7TH PHASE TODAY

KOLKATA: As a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases in Bengal created panic among citizens, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) geared up for the seventh and secondlast phase of polling on Monday at 34 assembly seats in four districts and a part of Kolkata.

Polling will be held on six seats each in South Dinajpur and Malda, nine in Murshidabad, nine in West Burdwan and four in Kolkata.

In Murshidabad, Pradip Kumar Nandi, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate from Jangipur and Rezaul Haque, Congress candidate from Samserganj died of Covid-19 earlier this month. Polls were to be held in these constituencies on Monday but the Election Commission rescheduled the date to May 16, two weeks after the results are announced on May 2.

“It is not me but the chief minister who is contesting. Our victory is certain,” said state power minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who is contesting from chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhawanipore constituency against actor Rudranil Ghosh. Ghosh, who campaigned doorto-door till Friday, told voters that Banerjee failed to deliver.

Elections in Bengal’s 294 seats are being held in an unprecedented eight-phase exercise that will end on April 29. The BJP, which set a record by winning 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, has sworn to oust the TMC government by winning more than 200 seats. On Sunday, Bengal reported 15,889 new coronavirus infections and 57 deaths. Of these, 3,779 cases and 18 deaths were reported in Kolkata.

Kajal Sinha, the TMC candidate from North 24 Parganas district’s Khardah, where polls were held on April 22, died of Covid-19 on Sunday morning. He was the third candidate to succumb to the infection.