Kolkata: On Thursday, polling began for 43 seats in sixth phase of assembly elections in West Bengal amid tight security. In this phase election will be conducted in 9 constituencies each in North Dinajpur and Nadia districts, 17 in North 24 Parganas and 8 in East Burdwan.
10,409,948 voters will decide the fate of 306 candidates including women 27 candidates.
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Out of the 43 seats in this round, Congress has got 12 in its share, CPI(M) got 23, All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) got four and CPI has got two seats. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is also trying its luck and has fielded 37 candidates.
Both the TMC and the BJP have pitched hard to gain the confidence of Matuas, who make for a large chunk of the state's Scheduled Caste population, in most of the 17 assembly segments going to polls in this phase in North 24 Parganas district and some of the nine seats in Nadia.
Prominent names in the sixth phase of the assembly polls include BJP's national vice president Mukul Roy, TMC ministers Jyotipriyo Mallick and Chandrima Bhattacharya and CPI(M) leader Tanmay Bhattacharya. The political fate of film director Raj Chakraborty and actor Koushani Mukherjee, who are the TMC's candidates from the Barrackpore and the Krishnanagar North constituencies respectively, will also be decided in this phase.
The Election Commission has said that voting will be done adhering to strict COVID-19 protocols. The voters will be given hand gloves while wearing of masks is mandatory. Those without masks will be given masks at the polling booth. The temperature of voters will also be checked at the entrance of the polling room.
West Bengal registered its highest single-day spike of 10,784 fresh Covid-19 cases, which took the tally in the state to 6,88,956, the health department said on Wednesday. The death toll also rose to 10,710 after 58 fresh fatalities were reported.