The fourth phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections began here on Monday with beefed up security, including adequate deployment of Central paramilitary forces.
49 constituencies spread over North 24 Parganas and Howrah districts are going to polls in this phase.
345 candidates, including 40 women, are in the fray for this phase. Across 49 seats in North 24 Parganas, Bidhannagar and Howrah district, a total of 1.08 crore voters will exercise their franchise in about 12,500 polling stations from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged all voters to turn out in large numbers.
"As the 4th Phase of the West Bengal polls commences, calling upon those who are voting today to do so in record numbers," he tweeted.
672 companies of Central security forces are actively helping the 22 thousand personnel of the state police.
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State finance minister Amit Mitra is pitted against former incumbent CPI-M's Ashim Dasgupta in Khardah. Trinamool ministers Chandrima Bhattacharjee from Dum Dum Uttar, Bratya Basu from Dum Dum, Purnendu Basu from Rajarhat Gopalpur and Saradha scam accused former minister Madan Mitra from Kamarhati are also in the fray in the North 24 Parganas district. Besides them, the lone BJP sitting MLA in the state, Samik Bhattacharjee from Bashirhat Dakshin and former minister Abdus Sattar from Amdanga are also contesting.
While Trinamool and the Bharatiya Janata Party are contesting in all the constituencies, the Left Front constituents and the Congress are contesting 46 seats.