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Amid a massive surge in COVID-19 cases, the fierce campaigning for the final phase of polling in West Bengal ended on Monday with top leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee making accusations and counter-accusations on the issues of governance.
In the eighth and final phase of polling, 35 constituencies across four districts will vote, including six constituencies of Malda, 11 in Murshidabad, seven in Kolkata North and 11 in Birbhum.
The polling will be held between 7 am and 6.30 pm in 11,860 polling stations. A total 84,77,728 voters — 43,55,835 male, 41,21,735 women and 158 of the third gender are eligible to decide the fate of 283 candidates in the eighth phase of polling.
Speaking at a public meeting in the state capital, the West Bengal Chief Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission (EC) are responsible for the ‘”increase in COVID-19 cases”.
“I am sorry to say, we respect Election Commission but you have become BJP’s ‘tia, Moina and Aaina’ (parrot, myna and mirror)…Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Election Commission are responsible for the increase in COVID-19 cases,” she said.
Banerjee also hailed the Madras High Court’s order that said the Election Commission holds the responsibility of surge in COVID-19 cases.
“I welcome Madras High Court’s order. The court has clearly said that Election Commission can’t shrug off its responsibility. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, elections were held in one phase. Why elections were conducted in eight phases in Bengal, to kill the people of the state?” she asked.
As per the union health ministry, West Bengal has 88,800 active cases currently, while 10,941 people have lost their lives to the deadly virus.
Amid a record spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Election Commission had decided to curtail the timings of campaigns for the remaining phases and extended the silence period to 72 hours for each of the phases.
West Bengal saw the seventh phase of polling on 34 seats on Monday. Polling for phases 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the state elections took place on March 27, April 1, April 6, April 10, April 17 and April 22 respectively.
In the 7th phase, A total of 75.06 per cent voter turnout was registered on Monday in phase seven of the West Bengal Assembly polls, the Election Commission said.
The poll panel noted that the turnout figures were provisional and recorded at 5 pm when the voting was still on. Polling was held “peacefully” in 11,376 polling stations spread across 34 constituencies in West Bengal.
The West Bengal assembly polls result will be out on May 2 along with those of the other states – Assam, Kerala , Tamil Nadu, Puducherry .
