West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said that polling was by and large peaceful, barring a few minor incidents. Seventeen presiding officers were removed for dereliction of duties in North 24 Pargana and Kolkat and 74 electronic voting machines were replaced due to technical snag.
Complete Coverage: Assembly Elections 2011
The special observer appointed by the Election Commission S Srinivasan has expressed satisfaction over the voting in the three districts. An electorate of 1.44 crore in the three districts were eligible to elect their representatives from among 479 contestants.
Among the important political figures whose fates were sealed in ballots include Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, Housing Minister Gautam Deb, Transport Minister Ranjit Kundu, Land Revenue Minister Abdur Rejjak Mollah, Sports Minister Kanti Ganguli, FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra, Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee and Kolkata Mayor Shovan Chatterjee.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist was contesting in 61 constituencies, the CPI three, the Trinamool 70, the Congress five, Forward Bloc seven, the Bharatiya Janata Party 75, Revolutionary Socialist Party three and the Bahujan Samaj Party 51 constituencies.
More than 17,700 polling booths had been set up in three districts. Fifty general observers, eleven expenditure and two police observers are constantly monitoring the poll process.
The first and second phase of voting took place on April 18 and 23 respectively. The third phase will take place on April 27, fourth phase on May 3, fifth phase on May 7 and sixth phase on May 10.
