West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 Phase 5 Voting Live: Polling underway to decide fate of 342 candidates

West Bengal Assembly Election Phase 5 Voting Live Updates: Voting is underway in West Bengal for the fifth phase of polls amid tight security arrangements after the Cooch Behar incident. Security measures have been heightened for phase five in view of the violence in the previous phase, which witnessed the death of five people in Cooch Behar, including four in CISF firing. The Election Commission has deployed at least 853 companies of central forces to ensure free and fair voting. The polling began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm. There are 342 candidates in the fray for the Phase-V polls. Over one crore voters will decide the political fate of 342 candidates in the fifth phase of polls. Voting will be held at 15,789 polling stations in the 45 constituencies. Prominent names include Siliguri Mayor and Left Front leader Ashok Bhattacharya, state ministers Gautam Deb and Bratya Basu and BJP’s Samik Bhattacharya.

Of the 45 constituencies going to polls, 16 seats in North 24 Parganas, eight in Purba Bardhaman, eight in Nadia, seven in Jalpaiguri, five in Darjeeling and one in Kalimpong district. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah led the campaign blitzkrieg for the BJP while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi debuted with two public meetings in north Bengal. For TMC, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee led the campaign. This phase is crucial for the ruling TMC, which is aiming to better its 2016 tally of 32 seats, even as a resurgent BJP looks to make inroads. In the last election, the Left-Congress alliance had bagged 10 seats. Elections have been held in 135 constituencies so far and the remaining 159 seats are set to go to polls between April 17 and 29.