West Bengal Election 2021 LIVE Updates on 28th March: 70.17% overall voter turnout recorded till 4 pm

West Bengal Elections 2021 LATEST Updates: A total of 70.17 percent voter turnout was registered in the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections as of 4.12 pm, the official application of the Election Commission showed. The Jhargram district, which was in the lead on Saturday morning, was narrowly overtaken by the Purba Medinipur district, which recorded a voter turnout of 72.32 percent.

Meanwhile, Jhargram posted 72.10 percent so far.

Sisir Adhikari, the father of TMC renegade and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, cast his vote at a polling place in Contai on Saturday afternoon. Sisir followed in her son’s footsteps and joined the BJP last week.

“We will receive the help of more central forces at the polls from now only before the second phase of the elections,” The NewsGater was quoted as saying by him.

Trinamool’s official congressional controller tweeted that voters in the Kanthi Dakshin seat were voting for TMC, but the VVPAT was showing them the BJP symbol.

Congressional leader Rahul Gandhi urged voters on Saturday to cast their votes against “dividing forces” to strengthen democracy as elections began for the first phase of the Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam.

“Cast your vote against divisive forces to strengthen democracy,” Rahul Gandhi said in a Hindi tweet.

Congress is contesting the West Bengal elections in a coalition with left-wing parties and the Indian Secular Front (ISF). Elections for the Assembly of the 294 member states will take place in eight phases beginning Saturday, with the final round of voting scheduled for April 29.

Sporadic incidents of violence were reported in some areas that are voting in the first phase of the Assembly elections in West Bengal on Saturday, even as the general election situation was peaceful with a 36.09 percent turnout recorded as of 11 a.m..

The car of Soumendu Adhikari, BJP agent of the southern Contai candidate was vandalized on Kanthi South in the West Medinipur district. The BJP is accusing TMC of the violence.

Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP chief Kailash Vijayvargiya will meet with election officials later on Saturday to report incidents of violence.

BJP’s candidate for West Medinipur, Samit Das, alleged on Saturday that few TMC workers attempted to influence voters at polling places 206 and 207 during phase 1 of the West Bengal elections.

A delegation of TMC MPs will meet with election officials in Bengal on Saturday at 12pm to “raise some serious concerns” as voting for the first phase of the Assembly elections is underway.

Two members of security personnel were injured after a shooting incident was reported in Satsatmal, the seat of the Bhagabanpur Assembly on Saturday before voting for the West Bengal ballot box.

Of the 30 seats in the first phase of the Bengal elections, the BJP is running for 29; one has been turned over to the All Jharkhand Students Union. Trinamool will also compete in 29 seats and support an independent candidate for the other seat.

According to media reports, Saturday’s voting was halted in Kharagpur after EVM’s malfunction was reported from polling stations 98 and 99.

Jhargram, Medinipur, Patashpur, and Ramnagar are among the big seats in Bengal at this phase, with Medinipur of particular interest because it is home to Suvendu Adhikari, the TMC renegade and former close aide to Mamata Banerjee, whose defection to the BJP led to a furious quarrel with her old party.

More than 73 lakh voters from five districts, all from Purulia and Jhargram, and parts of Bankura, West Medinipur, and East Medinipur, will vote in the around 10,200 booths from the first phase of the Bengal elections.

In the first phase of voting on Saturday, 23 seats in Jungle Mahal, which has an SC population of 22 percent and an ST population of 15 percent, will vote.

West Bengal is ready to vote on Saturday (March 27) in the first phase of the Assembly elections.

More than 73 lakh voters in the state will decide the fate of 191 candidates in 30 segments of the Assembly, most of whom are in the Jungle Mahal region, which was once affected by the Naxals, as the state will turn to the polls in the first phase on Saturday.

The elections will be held amid tight security with the Electoral Commission deploying around 684 companies from the central forces that would guard 10,288 voting booths located in 7,061 locations, authorities said. In addition, the state police will also be deployed in strategic locations, they added.

In the first phase, voting will take place amid strict COVID-19 guidelines in the nine seats in Purulia, four in Bankura, four in Jhargram, and six in Paschim Medinipur, in addition to the seven seats in high-risk Purba Medinipur, the home of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. The TMC and the BJP have presented candidates in 29 seats each, while the Left-Congress-ISF alliance has presented candidates in all 30 seats, even when there are “friendly fights” in some.

With the first phase, voting will end in two districts: Purulia and Jhargram. The Trinamool Congress is fighting 29 out of 30 seats while supporting an Independent in the Joypur Assembly segment in Purulia as the nomination of its official candidate Ujjwal Kumar was rejected by the EC due to a discrepancy.

Dibyajyoti Singhdeo, known to be a disgruntled TMC leader who submitted the nomination as an Independent, is now backed by the party and faces Narahari Mahato of BJP, who is a former Forward Bloc MP.

The Left Front has deployed Dhirendra Nath Mahato of the Forward Bloc from the seat, while Congress has deployed Phanibhushan Kumar as the two sides failed to reach a
agreement on the seat. The BJP is also contesting the polls in 29 seats, while its ally AJSU Party of Jharkhand is running a candidate in Baghmundi.

Congressional heavyweight Nepal Mahato is the alliance’s candidate from the seat, even as the Advanced Bloc sent Debranjan Mahato. The AJSU Party nominated Ashutosh Mahato, while the TMC nominated Sushanta Mahato.

According to the official seat-sharing agreements of the Opposition alliance, the left is fighting in 18 seats, Congress in 10, and the ISF in two. However, ‘friendly fights’ between left-wing parties and Congress are on the anvil in some seats, including Baghmundi and Joypur, as the negotiations were unable to conclude.

Among the other notable seats that will go to the polls in the first phase is Salboni, where the CPM has sent former Minister Susanta Ghosh against BJP’s Rajib Kundu and TMC’s Srikanta Mahata.

Ghosh, Garbeta’s MLA from 1987 to 2016, was in jail in the skeleton recovery case and is currently out on bail.

TMC has featured actress June Malia, a familiar face on the Bengali silver screen, from the Medinipur seat against BJP’s Samit Kumar Dash. The candidate of the left-led alliance is Tarun Kumar Ghosh of the CPI.

In Ranibandh’s seat, former left-wing minister Debalina Hembram is the CPI (M) candidate, while TMC has presented Jyotsna Mandi and Kshudiram Tudu for the BJP.

In another major contest, Santhali Birbaha Hansda actor is fighting on a Jhargram TMC ticket against BJP’s Sukhamay Satpathy and CPI (M) youth leader Madhuja Sen Roy.

The seven seats at Purba Medinipur – Patashpur, Kanthi Uttar, Bhagabanpur, Khejuri, Kanthi Dakshin, Ramnagar, and Egra – will also be closely watched in a prestigious fight between the influential Adhikari family and the TMC.

A total of 73,80,942 voters will exercise their right to vote in the first phase. The Jungle Mahal is dominated by tribes and the BJP made massive inroads into the region with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning all five constituencies: Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Medinipur, and Bishnupur.

West Bengal will vote in eight stages for 294 seats, starting Friday. Votes will be counted on May 2.