30 per cent polling recorded till noon

Kolkata, Apr 22 (UNI) An estimated 30 per cent of 11.2 million electorate exercised their franchise till noon in the second of the five-phase Assembly elections to 66 seats in four districts of West Bengal.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Debasish Sen here said the polling had been peaceful so far and the turnout was very good.

'' The polling is spontaneous and brisk. Long queues have been seen in front of every booth. No incident has been reported so far except technical snag and malfunctioning of EVMs in some booths of the four districts, where the polling had to start late, '' he added.

One booth under Uluberia South constituency is witnessing poll boycott by the voters owing to local issues.

While East Midnapore recorded for about 30 per cent turnout, the polling in Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia varied between 25 to 30 per cent, according to the District Magistrates.

The fate of 348 candidates, including 28 women, is at stake.

Polling is taking place in 12,299 polling stations, 11,160 regular and 1139 auxilliary, across the four districts, for which 14,938 EVMs are being used.

The six Left Front Ministers, whose fate will be decided in this phase, are Fire Brigade Minister Pratim Chattopadhaya (Marxwadi Forward Bloc) from Tarakeshwar, Food Minister Naren Dey (Forward Bloc) from Chinsurah, Fisheries Minister (West Bengal Socialist Party) Kiranmoy Nanda from Mugberia and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prabodh Chandra Sinha (Democratic Socialist Party) from Egra, Minister of State for Health Pratyush Mukherjee (CPI-M) from Amta and Refugee and Rehabilitation Minister Nayan Sirkar from Hanskhali.

Among the Opposition heavyweights, Congress Chief Whip in the outgoing Assembly Asit Mitra from Kalyanpur, veteran Congress leader Abdul Mannan from Chapdani and Trinamool Congress stalwart Ambika Banerjee from Howrah Central seek reentry into the House.

While East Midnapore accounts for 16 constituencies, Nadia for 15, Howrah for 16 and Hooghly accounts for 19.

Even as the first phase polling ended peacefully with a very high turnout, the Election Commission took no chances in its effort to complete the five-phase process, deploying 578 companies of Central paramilitary force jawans who have swarmed the streets and taken position in all the booths.

Altogether 132 observers, two each for 66 constituencies, besides four others for election expenses, are overseeing the polling.

Udaynarayanpur in Howrah district has the highest number of candidates of 11, while Nabadwip in Nadia, Panchla in Howrah, Jangipur, Singur, Dhaniakhali, Tarakeshwar, Khanakul and Arambagh in Hooghly district and Goghat, Ramnagar, Mugberia and Patspur in East Midnapore district have three each.

There is no straight contest in this phase.

In the first phase, which went to polls on April 17, an estimated 81 per cent electorate exercised their rights to franchise in three Maoist-dominated districts of South Bengal.

UNI KDG-XC SJC SB RS1217