Kolkata: The monthlong election process will end in West Bengal with the sixth and final phase of polling on Thursday.
More than 5.8 million voters are expected to exercise their franchise in 25 constituencies spread across the two districts of Coach Bihar and East Midnapore.
The Election Commission of India (EC), which has been credited for peaceful polling in the fourth and the fifth phase, is under pressure to conduct a free and fair poll as political parties including the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the opposition mainly the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), in alliance with the Congress party, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) battle it out for supremacy.
“We have identified 157 vulnerable hamlets and 257 vulnerable voters in Cooch Behar. In East Medinipur, there are 557 vulnerable hamlets and 1,428 vulnerable voters,” Dibyendu Sarkar, additional chief electoral officer said.
Polling will take place in 2,476 booths in Cooch Behar and 4,298 booths in East Midnapore.
EC will also provide wheelchairs in all the booth in East Midnapore after a survey found that, of the 36,59,584 voters, 15,500 are disabled.
“This is a unique initiative in West Bengal for the elections. We have arranged at least one wheelchair in [each of] about 4,000 polling premises across the district,” Tapan Tarafder, officer-in-charge of SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation) said.
Special wheelchair operators called ‘booth sahayaks’ have also been trained to bring the disabled voters to the polling station.
Speaking at the last rally for this election, Chief Ninister Mamata Banerjee expressed her confidence in retaining power.
“This is the last day of campaigning, I know that these elections have been really long and lives of common people have been affected. But at the end of this, we will come out victorious. We have already won. It’s just a question of how great a margin. I have come here to seek your blessings. You know the work I have done for the state despite the difficulties. Vote for me and I will continue to work for you,” she said.
However, all eyes will be on Cooch Behar, as 9,776 people are voters who were residents of erstwhile enclaves that were returned to India last year.
They will vote for the first time in 38 booths across five constituencies in the district.
Also, the constituency of Nandigram will be of particular interest as it was the focal point of a violent anti-land acquisition movement led by the TMC that played a key role in ending the 34-year Left Front rule in the state. TMC has fielded Suvendu Adhikari, a parliamentarian from Tamluk, who spearheaded the agitation. He is pitted against the Congress-supported CPM candidate, Abdul Kabir Sheikh.
TMC had won all the 16 constituencies in 2011 and it is a prestige battle for the party to retain all the seats in district.
“We will win in all the constituencies with a large margin. People of the district have seen the CPM and also the Congress. Nothing will stop us, even the section of media which has been continuously propagating against us,” said Adhikari.
