About 80% voters turned out on Thursday to elect their representatives in the first of the five-phase Lok Sabha election in four constituencies in northern part of the West Bengal.
According to the Election Commission, the overall voting percentage in four seats was around 80% till 5 pm, however, it may go up as polling was still being conducted in some of the booths. Coochbehar recorded the highest voter turnout, at 80.7%, while Darjeeling, Jalpaigudi and Alipurduar constituency recorded 75.9%, 80.6% and 79.4% voting, respectively.
Although there was no report of any major untoward incident, the Left Front has demanded re-election in some of the booths in Jalapaigudi and Coochbehar, alleging obstruction to voters by Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers. Mamata Banerjee's party, however, denied all charges.
“A few of the EVMs had to be replaced after mock polling before the election process began in some places, the entire election process was peaceful,” state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sunil Gupta said. EC introduced webcasting and live monitoring of sensitive areas along with tight security arrangement provided by the central forces.
AS TMC has never won any of these four seats, TMC is making all efforts to get its foothold in the political landscape in this part of the state. In 2009, Darjeeling was won by BJP, while the other three constituencies had gone to Left Front candidates.
Darjeeling is the focus of attention among the four seats, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM)-backed BJP candidate SS Ahluwalia is up against TMC's celebrity candidate and former footballer Baichung Bhutia. Other prominent candidates in these for seats include, Revolutionary Socialist Party's (RSP) sitting MP Manohar Tirkey from Alipurduar and Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Mahendra Roy in Jalpaiguri.
About six million voters would get the opportunity to elect their representatives in Lok Sabha in these four seats, where a total of 47 candidates are in the fray.
