20% voter turnout recorded till 9 AM in West Bengal; 15.90% in Assam

Mangalore Today News Network

Apr 11, 2016: Polling for 61 constituencies in the second and final phase of Assembly elections in Assam began on Monday. The second part of phase one of West Bengal Assembly polls for 31 seats spread over three districts kick-started today at 7 am.

 

Former Assam chief minister PK Mahanta casts his vote in Nagaon.

Police finds two bags of bombs in Jamuria (Asansol, Bardhaman district in West Bengal).

Earlier today, crude bombs were hurled in West Bengal’s Bankura district by unidentified men. Fortunately nobody was hurt.

CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress workers clash in Jamuria, Bardhaman district of West Bengal. News agency ANI reports that four have been injured and one is critical.

Women dance and celebrate after casting their vote at a polling booth in Kokrajhar.

In the second and final phase for Assam Assembly polls, people in large numbers queue up outside a polling booth in Guwahati.

West Bengal

Polling begins in 31 constituencies spread over three districts in part two of the opening phase of the West Bengal assembly elections.

Altogether 163 candidates, including 21 women, are in the fray in those 31 seats of West Midnapore, Bankura and Burdwan districts. An electorate of nearly 70 lakh (69,79,788), including 33,68,311 females and 50 third genders, are eligible to choose their representatives.

Among the LF constituents, the CPI-M has put up 19 candidates, followed by the Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party, All India Forward Bloc and the Democratic Socialist Party (Prabodh Chandra) in one each. The Congress is in the race in eight constituencies.

Repoll in two booths of Bankura and West Midnapore districts, where polling was held in the first part of the first phase poll on April 4, is also being held today.

An alliance of Left Front and Congress have put up a tough fight against Trinamool Congress which aspires to come to power for a consecutive second term.

 

Assam

In Assam there are a total of 1,04,35,277 voters eligible to cast their ballot in the second phase. Out of this eligible voters 50,44,051 are women and 22 are third gender. More than 50,000 polling personnel have been deployed with security tightened across the constituencies, particularly those in four Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) where NDFB(S) militants are active and in Goalpara district which recently witnessed a bomb blast.

There are 525 candidates in the fray and 48 of them are women. Polling will be held in 12,699 polling stations across the state.  While Congress is contesting in 57 seats, AIUDF, the major opposition party in the outgoing assembly, in 47, BJP in 35 while its allies--the Bodo Peoples’ Front (BPF) in 10 and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in 19. CPI(M) is contesting in nine, CPI in five, unrecognised parties in 129 and independents in 214.

Prominent candidates: Congress - Rakibul Hussain, Chandan Sarkar and Nazrul Islam.

AGP leader Prafulla Mahanta, AIUDF chief and Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma.