About 70 percent of the electorate exercised their franchise on Thursday, as Kolkata and its adjoining North and South Twentyfour Parganas districts witnessed an eventless and peaceful third phase polling amid high security and watchful gaze of the Election Commission.
Braving scorching sun, people turned out in large numbers. Long queues were witnessed in front of most of the booths with women outnumbering their male counterparts in several places.
Election office sources said while Kolkata recorded about 60 percent polling, 74 percent votes were polled in South Twentyfour Parganas and 75 percent in North Twentyfour Parganas.
At several booths, polling was continuing beyond the deadline of 1700 hours, indicating that the turnout might go up later.
Chief Electoral Officer Debasish Sen said polling was still going on in several areas with a large number of voters still waiting outside the booths. "The polling was smooth and peaceful everywhere. I have not received any major complaint," he said.
Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee said altogether 154 people had been arrested in the city for disorderly behaviour and there was no report of any violence.
However, at least six Communist Party of India-Marxist and three Forward Bloc workers were arrested from Bijpur and Jagatdal assembly constituencies respectively for allegedly intimidating voters.
Tension ran high in front of a polling booth at Haltu in Jadavpur constituency, from where Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is seeking reelection, when a fire cracker was burst which the voters mistook for a bomb explosion.
The panicked people, standing in queues, ran helter skelter as security force jawans rushed to nab two persons for the mischief.
Chief Electoral Officer Debasish Sen was the first victim of a faulty Electronic Voting Machine when he went to cast his vote at a booth in Prakash Bhawan under Belgachia East constituency due to a technical snag in the EVM that held up polling for about half-an-hour.
Later in the day, veteran CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu cast his vote in the same booth.
In several booths under Manicktala, Belgachia East, Baranagar, Ashoknagar, Canning and Alipore constituencies, EVMs developed technical snag, forcing the polling to kick off late.
At a booth in Salt Lake area under Belgachia assembly seat, Deputy Election Commissioner Anand Kumar was gheraoed by some 300 people, who protested against the deletion of their names from the electoral rolls despite having photo identity cards and demanded that they be allowed to cast vote.
Kumar paid a patient hearing to what they said and assured them of looking into the matter.
More than 50,000 central para miliatry force jawans and mobile vans are manning all the 13,790 polling booths and patrolling streets.
