Big Tuesday Show: Voting on 475 seats in Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry

Voting will be held across 475 seats in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry on April 6, Tuesday, the busiest day of the ongoing election season. The polling will take place in a single phase in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry while Assam will witness its third and final round of voting. This will be Bengal's third round in the eight-phase election ending April 29. 

Tamil Nadu will have a contest for 234 seats, Kerala for 140 seats, Assam for 40 constituencies, Bengal for 31 seats, and Puducherry for all 30 seats. Apart from assembly elections, two Lok Sabha seats — Malappuram and Kanyakumari — will also vote on the same day.

WEST BENGAL

• A three-cornered battle is on the cards in 31 assembly seats that are set to go to polls on Tuesday in the third phase of Bengal elections, with the BJP seeking to breach TMC fortresses, and Left Front-ISF-Congress alliance hoping to make a mark in areas, where identity politics has gained ground.
• More than 78.5 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise and decide the fate of 205 candidates -- prominent among them being BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, TMC minister Ashima Patra and CPI(M) leader Kanti Ganguly -- in three districts -- Howrah, Hooghly and South 24 Parganas.
• Tight security arrangements have been made to ensure peaceful voting, with 618 companies of CAPF deployed to guard 10,871 polling stations, all of which have been marked "sensitive" by the Election Commission. State police forces will also be deputed at strategic locations to aid the CAPF.
• With the Covid-19 situation in the state taking a turn for the worse, polling will be held amid strict adherence to health protocols across all 31 constituencies -- 16 in South 24 Parganas (part II), seven in Howrah (part I) and eight in Hooghly (part I).
• The TMC had won all but one seat of these 31 segments in the 2016 assembly elections. The Congress had managed to bag Amta constituency in Howrah district.

ASSAM

• Assam is all set to witness direct and triangular contests in 40 assembly constituencies that are going to polls in the last of the three phases on Tuesday to decide the fate of 337 candidates, including senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his five cabinet colleagues and BJP state unit president Ranjeet Kumar Dass.
• A direct contest between nominees of the BJP-led NDA and Congress-headed Grand Alliance is on the cards in 20 constituencies while there is a triangular fight, including friendly contests, in the remaining seats with the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) being considered as the third force.
• The newly floated AJP is contesting in 22 seats while there are 126 independents in the fray in the final phase of the election in which the BJP-led coalition is seeking to return to power for the second term in a row.
• Polling will begin at 7 am and end at 6 pm, with the timing extended by an hour to ensure that COVID protocols are maintained in the constituencies spread across 12 districts.
• There are 25 women candidates contesting in this phase.
• The fate of 20 sitting MLAs - eight from the Congress, five from the BJP, three each from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the BPF and one from the AGP -- will be decided in the final phase.

KERALA

TAMIL NADU

PUDUCHERRY

The union territory of Puducherry has 30 assembly seats, of which five are reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates. The voting will take place on April 6 in a single phase. The UT has been under President's rule since the Congress-led government collapsed on February 22. A total of 1,558 polling stations, including 952 main and 606 auxiliary ones, have been set up in Puducherry in 635 locations.

Congress is contesting 14 of 30 seats. Meanwhile, ally DMK is fighting on 13 while VCK and Communist Party of India on 1 each. The UT has an electorate of 10.03 lakh. (With PTI inputs)