Approximately around 58 lakh voters are eligible to cast their vote and will decide the political fate of 170 candidates, including 18 women.
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The Trinamool Congress tonight complained to the Election Commission observer and police about the Congress candidate from Moina assembly seat in East Midnapore district campaigning in the constituency till this afternoon for tomorrow’s polls, long after expiry of the campaigning time yesterday.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC have been promulgated today to curb any unlawful assembly. The weatherman in fact have predicted heavy showers in Coochbehar district, in particular.
For the first time since Independence, residents of border enclaves in Cooch Behar district will be able to exercise their franchise, thanks to the formal inclusion of the enclaves in the Indian territory past year. “Special voter awareness camps and mobile museums were organised for them”, said Sarkar.
Doddering and frail but nevertheless beaming with pride, 103-year-old former enclave dweller Mohammed Asgar Ali led three generations of his family in casting their maiden votes in the sixth and final phase of the West Bengal assembly elections on Thursday.
Thousands turned up in East Midnapore’s over 4,000 disabled voter-friendly booths, aided by the Election Commission’s special initiatives.
Each polling premises has a wheelchair, ramp with handrails and braille signs.
The Commission has made the arrangements following its finding that the district has 15,500 differently-abled voters, the highest 1,612 in Panshkura Paschim constituency.
Close to 900 trouble-mongers have been identified and action taken against all of them.
Under this sixth phase of election, 25 Assembly seats, including 16 seats in Purba Medinipur and 9 seats in Coochbehar districts are going to polls.
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In East Midnapore, the main focus was on Nandigram where police firing on a peasant’s agitation in 2006-07 resulted in the death of 14 people. Apart from the Trinamool’s Suvendu Adhikari, who is contesting from Nandigram in Purba Medinipur, State Environment Minister Sudarshan Ghosh Dastider is also in the fray.
