New Delhi: More than 1.54 crore voters within the states of West Bengal and Assam will train their proper to vote within the first phase of polling on Saturday to determine the destiny of a number of key candidates. Voting will start at 7 am and conclude at 6 pm, with the timing prolonged by an hour to make sure COVID-19 protocols are adopted.
Central forces will help the state police in sustaining regulation and order throughout polling, a senior police officer instructed PTI.
Polling within the 30 Assembly segments in West Bengal can be a contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The BJP feels it has the higher hand within the space because it had managed to win a lot of the Parliamentary seats within the area within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Voting on March 27 can be held amid tight security with the Election Commission deploying round 684 firms of central forces that will guard 10,288 polling cubicles housed in 7,061 premises. Alos, the state police may even be deployed at strategic places.
In the first phase, polling will happen amid strict COVID-19 tips in all 9 seats in Purulia, 4 in Bankura, 4 in Jhargram and 6 in Paschim Medinipur, apart from the seven seats in high-stakes Purba Medinipur – the house floor of BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari.
Polling within the remaining seven phases will happen on April 1 (30 seats), April 6 (31 seats), April 10 (44 seats), April 17 (45 seats), April 22 (43 seats), April 26 (36 seat) and April 29 (35 seats). Results can be declared on May 2.
While, in Assam, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Speaker Hitendranath Goswami, and Assam state Congress chief Ripun Borah amongst others from the ruling BJP and Asom Gana Parishad, can be within the fray for 47 constituency seats.
Altogether 264 candidates, together with 23 girls, are within the fray. And their destiny can be determined by 81,09,815 voters, together with 40,77,210 males and 40,32,481 girls.
It will principally be a three-way contest between the ruling BJP-AGP alliance, the Congress-led opposition grand alliance and the newly shaped Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP).
The state can have three-phase Assembly elections on March 27, April 1 and 6. The outcomes can be declared on May 2.
