Elections in two states of India-- Assam and West Bengal-- began on Saturday. Polling booths opened at 7:00 am and was closed at 6:00 pm as polling has been extended by an hour due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Assam and Bengal will have three-phase and eight-phase elections respectively. Results will be declared on May 2.
Voting is on for the first phase of polls for 30 seats in West Bengal out 294 Assembly seats. There are 191 candidates in the fray, and over 73 lakh voters were on the rolls to exercise their franchise. In Assam, 47 Assembly seats went to polls, with 264 candidates in the fray. Over 8 lakh were eligible to vote.
Voter turnout
Bankura : 80.03 %
Jhargram : 80.55 %
Paschim Medinipur : 82.16 %
Purbo Medinipur : 82.42 %
Purulia : 77.13 %
Total : 79.79 %
Polling has been peaceful, though stray incidents of violence were reported. Voter turnout of nearly 80% in West Bengal and over 70% in Assam in the first phase of polling in Assembly elections, reports The Economic Times.
The Bankura, Jhargram, and Paschim Medinipur districts all recorded just above 80 percent voter turnout, report Indian media.
In Bengal, the Trinamool faces a stern test from the BJP (and a lesser one from the Congress-Left alliance) in its bid for a third straight term. In Assam, the BJP is hoping to win a second straight term, with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal the biggest name on the ballot. In 2016, the Trinamool swept 26 of the 30 seats. In Assam, the BJP won 35 of 47 seats, reports NDTV of New Delhi.
For all the concerns over the coronavirus, politicians out on the campaign trail often showed scant regard for social distancing. But as people waited in long queues outside polling centres in West Bengal on Saturday, security personnel and election workers handed out masks, sanitisers and gloves.
The BJP currently controls a dozen of India’s 28 states, with alliance partners in several others. But it has never won power in West Bengal. The country’s fourth most populous state, with 90 million people, is key to controlling the upper house of the federal parliament whose members are elected by state assemblies.
West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh cast his vote at a polling booth in Jhargram in the first phase of state assembly elections. After TMC alleged that voting machines were "fixed" in some places, Dilip Ghosh said, “TMC knows that it is losing and that's why it is saying all this. For such complaints, TMC should go to the Election Commission.”
NDTV reports, stray incidents of violence were reported from some areas in West Bengal, even as the overall poll situation was peaceful with 79.8% of the eligible voters exercising their franchise till 5:00 PM. BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's younger brother was reportedly attacked allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters in Contai town in East Midnapur district, his party alleged. His car was vandalised and his was driver injured in the attack.
Seikh Sufiyan, the election agent of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, however, claimed that goons hired by the BJP carried out an attack on the workers of the state's ruling party, a charge denied by the BJP camp. “All three, who sustained injuries during the attack, are activists of the TMC. They were rushed to SSKM hospital in Kolkata. The condition of one of them has been stated to be serious,” Mr Sufiyan said.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called out her former aide Suvendu Adhikari, who is fighting the polls against her in Nandigram on a BJP ticket, a ‘traitor’ and accused him and his family of distributing money among people the night before polling.
Neighbouring Assam, home to 32 million people, is polarised along ethnic and religious lines, with immigration from neighbouring Bangladesh one of the biggest campaign issues.
A “citizenship list” in Assam state in 2019 left off almost two million people who were unable to prove they were Indian, many of them Muslims, a process many fear the BJP wants to roll out nationwide.