New Delhi: Polling personnel at a booth in West Bengal’s Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency were faced with a challenge as they had to conduct voting using mobile torches due to lack of light.


The polling personnel at Daspara Primary School in Chopra alleged that they had to conduct voting using mobile torches due to insufficient light. The presiding officer said there was no light on Thursday and after flagging the issue, only one tube light was installed.






Three Lok Sabha constituencies – Balurghat, Darjeeling and Raiganj are going to polls on the second phase of voting on Friday. The three seats recorded over 47 per cent voter turnout till 1 pm.


Darjeeling recorded the highest voter turnout of 49.09 per cent, while Raiganj and Balurghat saw 47.56 per cent and 44.93 per cent polling, respectively, an official said, as reported by news agency PTI.


"Polling is peaceful and there is no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the parliamentary constituencies," PTI quoted the official as saying.


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A total of 47 candidates, including state BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar, are in the fray in the second phase, with 51.17 lakh people eligible to exercise their franchise.


A total of 5,298 polling booths have been set up across the three seats. There are 1,999 polling stations in Darjeeling, 1,730 in Raiganj and 1,569 in Balurghat.


A total of 272 companies or 27,200 personnel of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), apart from 12,983 state police personnel have been deployed for the polls, the official added.