West Bengal polls entering decisive phase

Two phases of the Assembly election in West Bengal will be held this week, on Monday and Saturday. Constituencies in and around Kolkata - Ballygunge, Tollygunge, Dum Dum, Jadavpur - will go to the polls. The Narada news video allegedly showing ministers and legislators of the ruling party taking cash for extending favours to a fictitious company, and the collapse of an under-construction flyover on the Vivekananda Road, which claimed 25 lives, are likely to weigh on voters' minds.

After the Narada incident, an ABP Ananda-Nielsen opinion poll has given the Trinamool Congress (TMC) 178 seats in the 294-member Assembly as opposed to the 190 it had bagged in 2011.

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The Left-Congress combine is expected to bag 110, while the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to remain a marginal player with one seat, according to the poll. In vote share, the TMC-Congress alliance had secured 48 per cent in 2011, while the Left was at 39 per cent. This time, the TMC is expected to garner 45 per cent vote share, with the Left-Congress close behind at 44 per cent, according to the opinion poll. These two phases of voting will be decisive.