ALL EYES ON NANDIGRAM AS BENGAL VOTES
All eyes set on Nandigram, 20 companies of security personnel deployed
KOLKATA: Thirty assembly constituencies spread over four districts, including Nandigram where chief minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting against her protégé-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari, will go to the polls in the second of the eight phase elections in West Bengal elections on Thursday.
The election commission has deployed around 650 companies of central armed personnel across 10,620 polling booths where 7.6 million voters are eligible to vote.
KOLKATA: Thirty assembly constituencies spread over four districts, including Nandigram where chief minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting against her protégé-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari, will go to the polls in the second phase of West Bengal elections on Thursday.
The campaigning for the phase ended on Tuesday even as both the ruling TMC and BJP raised concerns over “outsiders” entering these constituencies.
“There is a serious apprehension that the anti-social elements and criminals will pose a great threat to the fair and impartial election,” a BJP letter to the state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) said. Banerjee has also been alleging that “goons from outside the state” have entered Nandigram and a few other constituencies and have been put up in hotels and lodges. “I have news that BJP workers wearing police uniforms would enter the villages to scare the voters and threaten them to vote for BJP in the upcoming elections,” Banerjee said at a rally in Nandigram.
The EC is deploying around 650 companies of central armed personnel across 10,620 polling booths in 30 constituencies, where 7.6 million voters are eligible to vote.
In Nandigram, around 20 companies are being deployed at 355 booths. With Nandigram going to polls in the second phase of elections in West Bengal, the administration has imposed Section 144 as a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident during the voting process. For phase two of the elections, there are 3,210 polling stations in 1,937 premises in the district.
A BJP delegation met the CEO on Wednesday and sought a bar on the assembly of over four people in some areas to prevent violence. “The EC is taking all necessary measures to hold free and fair elections in all the constituencies. The district officials have directed to check for outsiders in hotels and lodges,” said a Commission official.