Polling began at 7 am and ended at 6 pm.
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A total of 52.22 percent turnout was recorded till 1 p.m., with 52.12 percent in North 24 Parganas and 52.43 percent in Howrah, said an Election Commission official.
The poll watchdog said the transfers have been ordered “in order to further tighten the law and order machinery for 4th and 5th phase of polling in West Bengal”.
With an anti-incumbency of one term, chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) is pitted against Left parties and the Congress even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is aiming for a good performance in the state.
CPI-M’s Barrackpore candidate Debasish Bhowmick alleged that he was heckled by Trinamool workers, following which eight persons were arrested, the police said.
Greenhorns in the ring in this phase include former BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya’s daughter Vaishali and former Bengal cricket captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla – both contesting on TMC tickets.
The poll panel has sought a report from Howrah district officials on the actress turned politician’s movements.
Tanmoy Bhattacharya, the Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate from North Dum Dum, sustained injuries when alleged Trinamool activists pelted stones at his auto.
The commission said prior to the poll day, as part of vulnerability mitigation strategy, confidence building measures were being undertaken by large number of central police forces.
According to the family, several masked men entered their house at night and attacked them with sticks and bamboos, and warned them against casting their votes.
The 3-year-old was beaten because her father was a CPI (M) supporter.
BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee was engaged in a war of words with a polling agent in Ariadaha where she went to cast her vote.
Echoing her party supremo, TMC leader Mukul Roy also claimed that Trinamool has reached majority figure after Monday’s polling. If I understand politics, after this phase of polls we have already attained the majority mark needed to form the new government.
The EC received over 4,100 complaints during polling most of which were related to booth-capturing, false voting, intimidation of voters and malfunctioning of EVMs.
He also predicted that the Left Front-Congress alliance were on course to winning 200 seats in the 294-member assembly.
Besides one police observer in each of the districts, two more have been deployed in North 24 Parganas and another one in Howrah.
In the Sundarbans region, equipped with ham radio operations to solar lights, officials have gone the extra mile to ensure the electorate gets a chance to exercise their voting rights.
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Finance Minister of the state Amit Mitra, who has been the secretary-general of FICCI before he has got in to the politics in the year 2011 Assembly elections, is again in the dispute from the seat Khardaha in the district North 24 Parganas.
