In West Bengal, the second phase of Assembly elections will be held tomorrow, April 01. A total of 30 assembly constituencies will go for voting in this phase, out of which nine seats are in the East Medinipur district. Among these, Nandigram is one of the key constituencies as the Bengal Chief Minister- Mamata Banerjee is in the contest from that seat. The high-stakes & high-pitched second phase of the Assembly elections will witness an intense contest between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her former protégé & ministerial colleague Suvendu Adhikari.
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The total number of polling booths in Nandigram is 355. Out of which 278 are main and 77 are auxiliary polling stations. Webcasting facility will be available in 278 booths. Total number of voters for the second phase is 2,57,156, out of which, 1,33,258 are male voters and 1,23,898 are female voters. All the booths where polling will be held in the second phase have been declared as “sensitive” by the Election Commission of India.
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A total of 2,000 central forces officials will be deployed for Nandigram, and 22 quick response teams will also be there to prevent any chaos. The local sub-divisional authority in Haldia, Purba Medinipur district have said that in accordance with specific directions of the Election Commission of India, and in the likelihood of violence, breach of peace and unwarranted incidents, Section 144 of the CrPC was imposed from 6:30 pm on March 30 till April 2.
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Apart from Nandigram, other important constituencies that are going to polls for the second-phase include Tamluk, Panskura Purba, Panskura Purba, Moyna, Nandakumar, Mahisadal, Chandipur, Haldia. In West Medinipur, constituencies going to polls are Kharagpur Sadar, Narayangarh, Sabang, Pingla, Debra, Daspur, Ghatal, Chandrakona and Keshpur. The centrality of this phase of election is clear from the activities of the Election Commission of India. Just 24 hours before the vote, Circle Inspector, Mahishadal, Bichitra Bikas Roy, has been replaced by Inspector, Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench, Sirshendu Das. SDPO, Haldia, Barun Baidya has been replaced by Uttam Mitra. On April 01, voting will also take place in Bankura, Barjora, Onda, Bishnupur, Katulpur, Indus, Sonamukhi, Taldangra.
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Meanwhile, another important district in the fray for the second phase is South 24 Parganas. The district contains 31 Assembly constituencies in total and is known as a TMC stronghold. The TMC managed to win 29 of 31 seats in the South 24 Parganas. But, the saffron camp has also left no stones unturned during the election campaign in these areas. The promises that BJP made during the election campaign are also endless, from gathering people who were angry on cyclone Amphan relief to making Gangasagar an international fair. Constituencies that go to poll in South 24 parganas are Gosaba, Patharpratima, Kakdwip and Sagar.
Impact of weather-heatwave
Several parts of West Bengal have been reeling under conditions of heat-wave. It has been estimated that there would be no likely improvement in the situation over the coming days. Conditions will remain hot and humid. But many believe that public will queue in front of the polling stations from the morning overcoming all obstacles to elect their representatives, given the importance of this assembly election & the political awareness of Bengali voters.
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Question marks on ECI
In the context of West Bengal election, Election Commission of India, which was once reformed by TN Seshan (in early 1990s) is now facing serious questions over its legitimacy as an organization that coordinates the national and state elections. Its actions like declaring all the polling sites as sensitive, spreading the election over 8 phases, changing rules for polling agents, betrays its submissive attitude to the centre or rather BJP. It was also found out (by RTI activist Saket Gokhale) that for phase 5 polls, out of the affidavits for candidate-nomination, which were submitted on March 26, all were uploaded by ECI except that of the BJP candidate for Dhupgiri, Bishnu Pada Ray. As per transparency rules and requirements, such affidavits should be uploaded for all the parties at the same-time, for parity and transparency. But, ECI did not do so.
West Bengal had reported 84.3 percent voter turnout in the first phase of polling on March 27. Election in West Bengal is scheduled to be held in 8 phases from March 27 to April, 29 and the vote counting will take place on May, 02.
