Union Environment Minister Babul Supriyo is contesting from Tollygunge. He is pitted against TMC’s current MLA Arup Biswas.
Voting for the fourth phase continues in 44 seats in 5 districts of West Bengal today. The voting will last till 6.30 pm. There are 373 candidates in the fray in this phase. Their fate will be decided by 1,15,81,022 voters. Voting is going on in 9 seats in Howrah, 11 in South 24 Parganas, 5 in Alipurduar, 9 in Cooch Behar and 10 in Hooghly. In this phase, 3 MPs including a Union Minister are trying their luck.
High profile seat
Union Environment Minister Babul Supriyo is contesting from Tollygunge. He is pitted against TMC’s current MLA Arup Biswas. Partho Chatterjee, Minister of School Education and General Secretary of TMC in the Government of Bengal is also in the fray. He is pitted against the film actress Sarbanti Chatterjee, who is contesting from the BJP. Former forest minister Rajib Banerjee, who left TMC and joined BJP, is contesting from Domjur seat in Howrah district. BJP MP Lockett Chatterjee is contesting from Chuchura and Nishith Pramanik from Dinhata seat.
Security arrangements
15,940 polling booths have been set up in 44 seats. For security, the Election Commission has deployed 789 companies of security forces. There are 100 jawans in a company. That is, 78,900 personnel are handling the security for this phase. The maximum number of 187 companies have been deployed in Cooch Behar. The highest number of incidents of violence have been reported here in the last few days. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh was also attacked here.
Guidelines on Covid
Voters will be required to wear masks. Social distancing has to be followed. There will be thermal scanning of all voters. Polling personnel will be given a Covid-19 protection kit.
4 Phases in Bengal and the rest
Voting is to be held in 8 phases on 294 seats in West Bengal. Polling has been held for 30 seats on March 27 in the first phase, 30 seats in the second phase on April 1, and 31 seats on April 6 in the third phase. Voting is being held in 44 seats today (April 10). After this, on April 17, voting will be held on 45 seats under the fifth phase, 43 seats in the sixth phase on 22 April, 36 seats in the seventh phase on 26 April and 35 seats in the eighth phase on 29 April. Counting will take place on 2 May.
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