In West Bengal, fifth phase polling of Assembly elections for 53 seats ended today with brisk turnout and stray incidents of intimidation and clashes. Polling under this phase was conducted for 31 constituencies in 24 Parganas Dakshin, 18 in Hooghly and four in Kolkata Dakshin.<br/><br/>On the directions of Election Commission, authorities today filed FIR against Trinamool Congress MLA Sonali Guha after she was caught on camera allegedly ordering party workers to beat CPI-M polling agents. The conversation was recorded by TV channels. Guha, also the deputy speaker in the outgoing West Bengal Assembly, is the Trinamool candidate from South 24 Parganas district's Satgachia constituency.<br/><br/>The presiding officer at a booth in Arambagh was changed after charges of rigging for TMC. An FIR has been filed against all involved at the directive of the Commission. Over 2000 complaints were received by the Commission from the three poll-bound districts till early in the evening, highest being from the 24-Parganas Dakshin and the least from Kolkata Dakshin. <br/><br/>Kolkata Police used Drones to monitor the massive security arrangement made for the polling. AIR correspondent's report:- <br/><br/>"Along with TMC chairperson and Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee and 11 of her Cabinet colleagues, the voters in today's crucial round sealed the electoral fate of many heavyweights in EVMs. The candidates in Kolkata and 24-Parganas Dakshin included the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and the Kolkata Mayor, all of them from the ruling party. <br/><br/>The opponents contesting today included Congress' Deepa Das Munshi, BJP's Chandra Kumar Bose and Left leaders Kanti Ganguly, Sujan Chakraborty and Samik Lahiri. Senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan and CPI-M's former chief whip, Robin Deb figured among the notables in Hooghly-Ajay Mhamia."
News On AIR | April 30, 2016 7:43 PM
In West Bengal, 5th phase polling of Assembly elections for 53 seats ends