West Bengal assembly polls: Around 22% voter turnout recorded in first two hours

Nearly 22% turnout was recorded in the first two hours after polling began in 49 constituencies spread over two districts - Howrah and North 24 Parganas - bordering Kolkata in phase four of the West Bengal assembly elections on Monday.

"Till 9.00 a.m, 21.87% turnout was recorded, with 22.63% in North 24 Parganas and 20.34% in Howrah," said an Election Commission (EC) official.

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While the EC claimed the polls to be peaceful so far, the BJP and the Congress alleged false voting in some of the booths.

BJP's Roopa Ganguly contesting from Howrah North alleged false voting in one of the booths and also faced angry protests from alleged Trinamool Congress activists.

Her rival from the Trinamool Congress, retired international cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, denied the charges and claimed polling was peaceful in the constituency.

North 24 Parganas, a part of which falls under the world's largest mangrove forests - the Sundarbans - has 33 constituencies. The remaining 16 are in Howrah.

Over 1.08 crore (1,08,16,942) voters across 12,481 polling stations, including 27 auxiliary booths, are eligible to decide the fate of 345 candidates - 40 of them female - between 7.00 a.m and 6.00 p.m.

The Election Commission has used 14,353 electronic voting machines (EVM) and 680 Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

A total of 672 companies of central forces and 23,000 state police personnel have been deployed, in addition to other measures, to ensure free and fair polls in the two districts, considered volatile in view of their history of political clashes and poll-related disturbances in past Elections.

In the Sundarbans region, equipped with ham radio operations to solar lights, officials have gone the extra mile to ensure the electorate gets a chance to exercise their voting rights.

In the 2011 assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress - then an ally of the Congress - had bagged 43 of the 49 seats. The Congress had got two, the Left Front spearhead Communist Party of India-Marxist three and the Communist Party of India one.

The Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are in fray in all the constituencies. The Left Front constituents and the Congress are contesting 46 seats, leaving one seat to Janata Dal-United, besides backing two independents.Read more about Assembly Elections in 2016.

West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016

Amid a multi-layered security cover, more than 23% voters exercised their franchise till 9 a.m in 18 constituencies of Left-wing extremism-affected areas in the first phase of West Bengal Assembly election 2016 held today.

Election Commission officials said the polling percentage was 23.4% in the three districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura during the first two hours.

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There had been no reports of any violence in the districts and polling process was going on smoothly even in the Maoist-hit areas, they said.

Phase 1 of the Elections In West Bengal will decide the fate of 133 candidates, including 11 women, fighting from the 18 constituencies.

Out of them, 13 seats have been classified as LWE-affected areas where voting will end early at 4 p.m due to security considerations.

In the remaining five constituencies of Purulia, Manbazar, Kashipur, Para and Raghunathpur voting will go on for two extra hours till 6 p.m.

The total number of voters in the constituencies are a little over 40 lakh (40,09,171) out of which 20,47,202 are men.

The third gender category list shows only a handful of 16 voters.

There are 4,945 polling stations out of which 1,962 have been classified as critical ones where extra caution is being taken.

Voter Verifiable Audit Trails (VVAT) are made available in 562 polling stations.

Unlike in 2011 Assembly polls where the Trinamool Congress was its partner, Congress this time has forged an alliance with the Left parties.

All the three - Trinamool, Left-Congress alliance and BJP - have fielded candidates in all the 18 seats.

Gobordhan Bagdi is the only one fighting from two seats, Para and Raghunathpur, on a JMM ticket.

In all the Left-wing extremism affected polling stations, the EC has decided to deploy a minimum of one section of force, which has around ten security personnel.

A minimum of three security layers including sector forces and a quick response team have been arranged.

The central forces are present in every polling booth and depending on the requirement the deployment of forces is being increased.

For aerial surveillance, two choppers have been conducting regular sorties to trace any undesirable activity.

Meanwhile, three faulty EVMs were replaced in Taldangra seat in Bankura district, election officials said. While the fault was detected in two EVMs before voting began, and that of another was spotted just after the polling started.

Kolkata flyover collapse could hurt Mamata, Trinamool's Assembly election prospects

It's not the best of times for Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister of West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016, Mamata Banerjee.
 
The buzz around the Narada news video -- allegedly showing ministers, MLAs and MPs from the ruling Trinamool taking cash for extending favours to a fictitious company --was just about dying down when disaster struck Thursday afternoon in one of the most congested areas of the city; the 2.2 km under-construction Vivekananda Road flyover collapsed, killing at least 21 lives. Rescue operations are still on, and that number could rise.
 
The timing couldn't have been worse for Banerjee, with state Assembly polls slated to start in less than a week. The first phase starts on April 4 with West Medinipur. The more immediate repercussion of the mishap, however, is likely to felt in the city where elections are on April 21 and 30.
 
The Left Front is already accusing not just the government but Banerjee personally. Last November, Banerjee had announced that the flyover would be completed by August 2016.
 
West Bengal Election 2016 : "In an authoritarian regime, no one questions the queen. There was a mad rush to complete the flyover which has caused this tragedy. The Chief Minister should take moral responsibility for this mishap," CPI(M) leader, Mohammed Salim said.
 
Banerjee, who was campaigning in West Medinipur yesterday, rushed to the site of the accident and promptly started supervising rescue operations, microphone in hand. A makeshift nabanna(state secretariat) was set up some 500 metres from the site, complete with a fax machine. It was important to be seen at the disaster site and Banerjee stayed till late into the night.
 
She had already absolved her government's guilt by saying that the flyover contract was given to the Hyderabad-based contractor, IVRCL, in 2009 by the Left Front government. But right now, no one is buying that argument.
 
The flyover had missed the deadline at least six times with the original deadline being 2011.
 
According to the contract, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the implementing agency was supposed to supervise each stage, Salim pointed out. "What were they doing when a fault was detected the previous night by the contractors' side," he asked.
 
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, too, are raising the pitch against Banerjee. The BJP has asked for a CBI investigation. Both the parties have said the construction and collapse reek of corruption.
 
"The urban development minister has been caught taking bribe in the video so what can we expect? This is under his ministry. Why is it that the contractor has changed the design and the course so many times?" Salim asked.
 
Banerjee, for her part, is set to take IVRCL to task, with the Kolkata Police filing at least three FIRs against the Hyderabad-based company.
 
This will not be the first time that Banerjee punished a company for loss of lives in a tragedy. Months after she took charge as Chief Minister, there was a major fire at Emami co-promoted AMRI Hospital that killed 90 people. The Emami promoters were taken into custody immediately which had a widespread repercussion on the Marwari business community that felt discriminated against.
However, most of the directors were granted bail a few months after the incident; the chargesheet was filed in 2012, but the trial is yet to start. The hospital itself was reopened in July 2014, according to media reports.
 
This time, however, with elections knocking on door, it's a completely ball game.
 
Till months back, Elections in West Bengal were expected to be a cakewalk for Banerjee. After the Narada incident, however, a ABP Ananda-Nielsen opinion poll has given Trinamool 178 seats in the 294 West Bengal Legislative Assembly, still a majority but lower than the 190 it bagged in 2011. The Left-Congress combine is expected to bag 110 seats while the BJP would remain a marginal player with one seat.
 
In terms of vote share, the TMC-Congress alliance had got 48% in 2011 while the Left was at 39%; this time, the TMC is expected to get 45 per cent vote share and the Left-Congress close on the heels at 44%, according to the opinion poll.
 
Banerjee is still slated to win but suddenly calculations on margins of victory are no longer a certainty.
 
"In 2011, many of the Left Front supporters voted for the Trinamool. This time, many Trinamool supporters may vote for the Left," a Left leader said.

West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016

With only a few weeks to go before the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016, the political landscape in West Bengal has changed: The Opposition has gained some space with news portal Narada News releasing a video allegedly showing ministers, MLAs and MPs from the rulingTrinamool Congress (TMC) accepting cash for extending favours to a fictitious company; the Bengal intelligentsia that was once on the same side as chief minister Mamata Banerjee and screaming for Paribartan (change) is now a confused lot. And, the obvious casualty in all the din is Kolkata as it continues to play the perfect host to rallies and counter-rallies.

West Bengal Elections: Around 160 km away from the pandemonium, Shaktipada Mondal, 60, of Sonachura in Nandigram (Purba Medinipur district), hasn't heard about the controversial video. In the past nine years since the police firing in connection with a land acquisition for a 14,000-acre chemical hub project by Indonesia's Salim Group, killing 14 according to the official version of the then Left Front government; 50 as claimed by TMC which was then in the Opposition), life has not changed much for him.

Mondal makes do with a meagre earning of Rs 200-300 a day from his small-time kirana store that was witness to the firing. "I had to flee after the firing and then set up shop all over again," recalls Mondal. Was there any help from TMC that came to power on the back of its successful agitation in Nandigram? "No," says Mondal, whose insurance against a bad sales day is a 90-decimal plot where he grows paddy.

Mondal represents 80 per cent of the farmers of Nandigram who are marginal and engaged in subsistence agriculture. That, of course, is the story of West Bengal where 84 per cent of the land is owned by small and marginal farmers thanks to the land reform initiatives of the Communist government in the late 1970s.

Lack of employment opportunities in Nandigram has pushed three of Mondal's sons to work outside the state. That part of the story, however, is repetitive as 10-15 per cent of the population of Nandigram have moved to Odisha or Gujarat for work.

The backwardness of the place was one of the reasons why the Left Front government decided to locate the Salim Group project here. The project was relocated by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee after the police firing and later scrapped by the Banerjee government.

From an industrial hub as envisaged by the Left regime, Nandigram today is a conglomeration of model villages fenced by its greenery. From primary healthcare centres to toilets under the Mission Nirmal Bangla, the West Bengal Election 2016 government's sanitation programme, Nandigram has it all.

Nandigram is flourishing, says Kali Krishna, the gram pradhan. In the past five years, 18 km of roads have been built under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which also happens to be a major source of income. The state government has also achieved 100 per cent electrification. The Pradhan is particularly gung-ho about shrimp farming. The income of roughly 20 per cent of the farmers with large landholding has doubled in the past few years.

West Bengal earns foreign exchange of nearly Rs 1,500 crore through shrimp exports and Purba Medinipur accounts for the lion's share. Ever since the TMC government came to power, there has been an unrestrained growth in shrimp farming as the local panchayats have been quick in giving approvals for land conversion from agriculture to coastal land.

In the best of years, profits from paddy farming have rarely exceeded Rs 5,000 a bigha (third of an acre). But now, a handful of farmers can earn as much as Rs 40,000 for a bigha. In addition, with each farm employing five to 10 workers, it has also translated to jobs.

When not building roads or farming shrimps, Nandigram pays homage to the 'shahids' of the police firing. Thirteen Shahid Minars (memorials) have been built in the past five years. The tallest is 125 feet, costing Rs 3 crore.

West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016

The Narada News sting operation — showing ministers, members of Parliament (MPs) and members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) allegedly taking cash for favours — kept the party and the Opposition busy in West Bengal on Tuesday.

While most of the alleged people in the video footage refrained from making comments on the sting, TMC chief and West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee chose to respond to the allegations at a rally in North Bengal's Kurseong, where she has been campaigning for the past few days. "Let the Opposition hatch as many conspiracies as they want. We are not afraid. We work for the people. We do not believe in fear tactics," Banerjee said without mentioning the sting operation.

"We are ready to give a fitting reply to the Opposition politically. People will bowl them out in elections," she said, apparently keeping her faith in the electorate.

Sources close to the development said the ruling party was in a dilemma. The party's parliamentary committee was believed to have met on Tuesday to discuss its strategy to counter the sting. Some of them said the party should have been proactive in investigating the issue. Some felt the party should move court to obtain a stay on airing the footage till its veracity was proved but others were sceptical of the outcome.

The release of the footage came at a time when the ruling party was worried about an alliance between the Left Front and the Congress. The Left Front and Congress, in fact, held joint rallies on Tuesday to raise issues, including the sting operation against the TMC.

Left Front-affiliated students' organisations, including the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) held protest marches in Kolkata against the TMC.

West Bengal Elections 2016, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also took to the streets. Party workers blocked roads and a delegation marched to Raj Bhavan demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter and dismissal of the TMC government.

"We met the Governor and said that the TMC government, whose ministers, MPs and other leaders were seen taking bribes, had no right to govern the state. We demand immediate dismissal of the government. Free and fair elections is not possible with the TMC at the helm of affairs in the state," BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said. Assembly polls in the state would be conducted in April-May, over six phases.

In Parliament West Bengal Elections, MPs from the BJP, Left Front and Congress demanded an investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, the full bench of the Election Commission, which was visiting the state to review poll preparedness, said in response to questions that it had received complaints from the Opposition on the sting and appropriate authorities had been informed.

This is the second time that allegations of corruption have surfaced against the TTMC, the first time being when the Saradha chit fund scam came to light. The CBI had questioned many of the Trinamool leaders in connection with the scam. Then transport minister Madan Mitra was forced to resign and is still in custody.

However, the Saradha scam failed to have any impact on the TMC electorally in the 2014 general elections. The next month will tell whether Narada will be any different.