Nearly 55% votes polled in 8 LS seats of West Bengal till 1 pm

Kolkata: West Bengal registered a voter turnout of 54.80 per cent till 1 pm in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies that went to polls in the sixth phase on Saturday, an official said.

Polling began at 7 am in Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura and Bishnupur constituencies. It would continue till 6 pm.

Bishnupur (SC) recorded the highest polling at 58.64 per cent, followed by Tamluk (57.64 per cent), Ghatal (57.31 per cent), Jhargram (ST) (56.95 per cent), Bankura (54.21 per cent), Kanthi (51.66 per cent), Medinipur (51.57 per cent) and Purulia (50.34 per cent), he said.

“Voting has been peaceful so far. There are no reports of any untoward incident from anywhere,” the poll official told PTI.

Till 1 pm, the election office in West Bengal has received 1,646 complaints, he added.

Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from some areas in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal.

Altogether 1,45,34,228 voters – 73,63,273 men, 71,70,822 women and 133 belonging to the third gender – are eligible to exercise their franchise in 15,600 polling stations.

Of the 79 candidates in the fray, Bankura and Jhargram have the highest number of 13 contestants each, followed by Purulia (12) and nine each in Medinipur and Tamluk.

Seven candidates each are contesting in the Bishnupur and Ghatal seats.

A total of 919 companies of central forces have been deployed along with over 29,000 state police personnel, officials said.