Bengal Election 2021: Over 81.88 lakh electorates will decide the fate of 268 candidates.
Nearly 18 per cent of the 81 lakh electors have voted in the first three hours of polling in West Bengal. Trinamool MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Nusrat Ruhi were among early high-profile voters. Thirty-four assembly constituencies spread across five districts are voting today in the seventh phase of the eight-phased election. Among these, six are in Dakshin Dinajpur, six in Malda, nine in Murshidabad, nine in Paschim Bardhaman and four in Kolkata.
In Bhowanipore, the home turf of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool has fielded party heavyweight Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay. Ms Banerjee has chosen Nandigram in this election in place of Bhowanipore.
West Bengal Elections: 34 assembly constituencies spread across 5 districts are voting. (File)
Kolkata:
Bengal is voting for the 7th time today in the longest ever assembly election any state has seen, that too in the middle of the second wave of a pandemic that many are calling a tsunami. More than three lakh infections on a single day have been reported in the country.
In Bengal, in the last 24 hours, 15,889 new cases have been reported - the highest spike in the state ever. 57 have died.
In normal times, this phase - with 36 seats - would have been one of the most exciting, with high-profile ministers, film stars, fashion designers, so-called Trinamool Congress to BJP turncoats, student leaders and even a General (retired) in the race.