With the last and sixth phase of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, covering 14 constituencies, all set to begin at 7 a.m. on Tuesday (May 10), the Election Commission has made “unprecedented security arrangements” considering all the constituencies come under the hotbed of naxal activities.
Besides 700 companies of the Central Police Forces (CPF) which have already been moved to provide security cover in the constituencies coming under West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura districts, another 125 companies of the State armed police and local police have been deployed to ensure all goes well during the polling, an EC official said here on Monday.
Besides three helicopters and CPFs on anti-landmine vehicles would be patrolling the sky and the ground to ensure that the electorate – 26,578,434 – exercised their franchise in a peaceful atmosphere without fear or violence. Of the total voters 12, 87,967 are women.
With the completion of this phase of WB poll, the process of polling that began on March 1 with the announcement of poll schedule for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Puducherry and West Bengal will come to an end and the counting is to be taken up on May 13 at 8 a.m. in all the four States and Puducherry.
A total of 97 candidates are in fray for this phase of WB poll and of them seven are women. The Commission has set up 3534 polling stations in the three districts and declared all of them as “hyper sensitive”.
West Midnapore has the highest of seven Assembly constituencies, followed by four in Purulia, and three in Bankura.
