The power battle in West Bengal has reached its penultimate stage as polling for the seventh phase of the state assembly elections is going to be held today, i.e. April 26. In Phase-VII, 34 assembly constituencies spread across five districts will go to polls.
Of the 34 constituencies, 9 assembly constituencies each are in Murshidabad and West Burdwan, 6 each in South Dinajpur and Malda and 4 in Kolkata.
In this seventh phase, 284 candidates from different political parties are in the fray of which 37 candidates are female.
The total number of electors including service voters in these constituencies are 81,96,242 with 42,00,447 male electors and 39,88,239 female voters.
The total number of polling booths are 11,376 that includes 8,634 main and 2,742 auxiliary booths.
The number of 80 plus voters are 1,01,069 while 50,919 are PWD (Persons with Disabilities) voters.
The total number of service electors are 7,335, third gender voters are 221 while overseas voters are 33.
Ruling TMC and BJP are contesting on all 34 seats. Congress, the Left parties and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) have made a coalition and are contesting under the banner of Sanyukta Morcha.
Out of the 34 seats in this round, Congress has got 18 in its share, CPI(M) got 12, RSP three, AIFB got one and ISF has got four seats.Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is also trying its luck and has fielded 25 candidates.
The dominance of the Muslim population in the districts of Murshidabad, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda sets the political dynamics in this region.
The Election Commission has deployed 26 general observers, 9 expenditure observers and 6 police observers for the 7th phase of polls. There will be webcasting facilities in 50 per cent of the booths and micro-observers will be deployed in 20 per cent of the booths.
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. Polling for the final phase will be held on April 29 while the counting of votes will take place on May 2.
(With agency inputs)