“Voting was going on peacefully with no allegations of any large-scale poll related violence,” an ECI official said. The voter turnout in the three constituencies was 15.6% till 9 am.
While Balurghat recorded 14.7% turnout, Raiganj recorded 16.4% turnout. On the other hand Darjeeling witnessed 15.5% turnout,
The poll panel received about 60 complaints during the first two hours which were mostly related to the malfunctioning of the EVM machines.
For the BJP, Balurghat will be a key constituency as the party’s president and sitting MP Majumdar is contesting from here.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have campaigned in support of the sitting MP in this constituency. While, state minister Biplab Mitra has been fielded by the TMC against him.
“He knows he will lose this time. The BJP hasn’t been able to post agents in all booths. Hence, he is staging such drama,” said Biplab Mitra, state minister and TMC candidate. In total, 47 candidates are there, who will be contesting for these three seats located in north Bengal. There are around 5.1 million electors, who will be exercising their franchises from these three seats.
