Security beefed up for third phase of polling in West Bengal

Kolkata: Security has been beefed-up for the third phase of the West Bengal assembly elections in 62 constituencies, going to take place on Thursday. In all, 418 candidates including 70 independents and 34 women are in fray. 58 candidates for 7 constituencies of Kolkata Uttar, 189 for 22 seats of Murshidabad, 108 for 17 seats of Nadia and 83 contestants for 16 seats of Burdwan districts are trying their luck. Only the BJP and TMC have fielded party candidates on all the 62 seats. Having entered these polls with an understanding, the CPI-M and the Congress are contesting on 38 and 26 seats, respectively. More than 1.37 crore electorates will decide the fate of 418 candidates, including 34 women, in 62 constituencies. A total of 1,37,42,000 electorates comprising 71,33,978 male, 65,79,218 female, 159 third gender and 28,645 service electors will cast their votes at 16,461 polling stations having 18,930 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and 1,214 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system, including reserved. Voting will be conducted in 16,461 polling stations, 3, 401 of them sensitive including 324 in Kolkata Uttar. Special security precautions and constant vigil measures have been taken at all the centres. It is reported that over 700 companies of Central security forces have been deployed while 25 thousand state Police personnel will assist them in ensuring peaceful, free and fair polling. In addition, 1283 teams of sector forces and 194 RT mobile teams have been deployed to respond to various exigencies including feedback received from CCTV monitoring and live webcast of the voting at 549 booths. Besides general and Police observers, 3376 micro observers of the Commission are on duty. In Murshidabad, earmarked as the district with a high number of trouble zones, three Police observers have been deputed