Voting in the Assembly elections ended in Tamil Nadu and a part of West Bengal on Thursday with the “highest-ever percentage of polling” since Independence, ANI quoted Chief Electoral Officer Gyanesh Kumar as saying.
In Tamil Nadu, polling was held in all of the state’s 234 seats. In West Bengal, voting was held in 152 of the state’s 294 constituencies.
As of 6 pm, the provisional voter turnout in Tamil Nadu was 84.7%. In West Bengal, the turnout was 91.8%, data from the Election Commission showed.
Voting in the remaining seats in West Bengal will be held on April 29. In both states, the votes will be counted on May 4, along with those in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry where polling was held on April 9.
Also read: Bengal goes to the polls today, but lakhs of voters, including my family, don’t count
During polling on Thursday in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, a scuffle broke out between Trinamool Congress workers and Aam Janata Unnayan Party founder Humayun Kabir, ANI reported. Trinamool Congress members reportedly shouted slogans of “go back” and accused Kabir of being a BJP agent.
The Aam Janata Unnayan Party founder was visiting the area where a crude bomb was allegedly hurled a day earlier, injuring a woman and triggering panic ahead of voting.
The Election Commission has sought a report from the district magistrate and district election officer on the scuffle, ANI reported.
The Trinamool Congress on Thursday alleged that three women were assaulted by Central Reserve Police Force personnel at a polling booth in the Lakhipur ward of Uttar Dinajpur district, The Hindu reported. One of the women suffered a head injury, the newspaper quoted an unidentified party leader as saying.
The BJP’s candidate from Asansol South Agnimitra Paul alleged on Thursday that unidentified persons “broke the glass of the car with a big stone”. She claimed that the attackers were affiliated to the Trinamool Congress, ANI reported.
In Tamil Nadu’s Poompuhar constituency, a police officer on election duty was stabbed by a man at a booth, The Hindu reported. The incident occurred at Booth number 324 which was set up at the Jamaliya Middle School in Poraiyar.
A resident of Kattucheri and a retired serviceman have been arrested in connection with the incident, the newspaper reported.
SIR in Bengal, Tamil Nadu
The polls are taking place against the backdrop of the Election Commission having carried out a special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in 12 states and Union Territories, including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Nearly 91 lakh voters have been removed from West Bengal’s voter lists as part of the exercise. The deletions represent nearly 11.9% of the state’s electorate of 7.6 crore that existed before the revision process began.
About 27 lakh appeals filed in tribunals against exclusion from the voter lists are mostly undecided.
All decisions made by the tribunals on the addition and deletion of voters by April 21 for the first phase and April 27 for the second must be reflected in the final voter lists, the Supreme Court has told the Election Commission.
Ahead of the first phase, only 138 of the 27 lakh appeals had been decided on by the tribunals.
In Tamil Nadu, more than 74 lakh names were removed from the final voter list.
A record 2.4 lakh Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed in West Bengal for the first phase.
Also read:
- Bengal elections: EC announces restrictions on motorcycles, pillion riders ahead of polling
- From jhalmuri to fish, how BJP is trying to shed its outsider image in Bengal
- Bengal SIR: EC adds 136 voters cleared by tribunals from 27 lakh appeals before first polling phase
In West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has been in power since 2011. The main Opposition in the state over the years has shifted from the Left parties to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In the 2021 polls, the BJP managed to win 77 seats in the 294-member Assembly. The Trinamool Congress had won 215. A party or an alliance needs 148 seats for a majority. The other alliance comprising the Left, the Congress and some smaller parties, despite securing a 10% vote share, had won just one seat.
In the Tamil Nadu polls in 2021, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led alliance, which includes the Congress and the Left, won 159 seats in the 234-member Assembly. A party or an alliance needs 118 seats for a majority.
The National Democratic Alliance, comprising the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the BJP, had won 75. DMK leader MK Stalin had become the chief minister.
The actor-turned-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam is making its electoral debut in this year’s election.
Also read:
- Can Vijay’s electoral debut shake up Tamil Nadu’s politics?
- Tamil Nadu polls: Over 400 candidates face serious criminal cases, 25% contesting are crorepatis
- West Bengal polls: 23% candidates in first phase have criminal cases against them
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