TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee was Wednesday sworn-in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the third consecutive term after securing a massive mandate, and vowed to not give respite to those behind political violence sweeping the state since the election results were announced. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar administered her the oath of office and secrecy at a low-key ceremony at Raj Bhavan held amid the raging COVID pandemic. Banerjee took the oath in Bengali language. She is the 21st chief minister of West Bengal and 8th person to hold the office. The oath-taking ceremony was held even as the BJP, which has emerged as the main opposition party in the state, held a protest at its Hastings office against attacks on its workers allegedly by the TMC since Sunday night. The party has claimed several of its workers were killed and party offices set on fire and vandalised. Party president J P Nadda and state unit chief Dilip Ghosh were present.
Voting began at 7 am on Monday amid tight security and concluded at 6 pm. Voting was held in 11,376 polling stations spread across 34 assembly constituencies in five districts. Among the 34 constituencies that went to polls in Phase-VII, six are in Dakshin Dinajpur, six in Malda, nine in Murshidabad, nine in Paschim Bardhaman and four in Kolkata. Among the five districts, Murshidabad recorded the highest voter turnout of 80.37 per cent till 5 pm. The lowest voter turnout was observed in Kolkata South with 60.03 per cent. Constituency-wise, Raninagar in the Murshidabad district recorded the highest voter turnout of 84.35 per cent followed by Bhagabangola at 83.50 per cent. Rashbehari constituency in Kolkata witnessed the lowest voter turnout at 55.93 per cent.
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Read more about After polls are announced, law and order become responsibility of EC: TMC on Business Standard. You have to understand the chronology. You remove the DGP, leave a woman chief minister s security less and then attack her, says TMC leader Derek O Brien