Bengal LS polls: 47 in fray for three seats in 2nd phase, Raiganj gets maximum security

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Kolkata, April 25 (IANS) The fate of 47 candidates, including that of the BJP state President in West Bengal, will be sealed on Friday in the second phase of elections in three Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.

The BJP has sitting MPs in all the three Lok Sabha constituencies – Raiganj, Darjeeling and Balurghat — that will be going to polls on Friday.

Of the three constituencies, Raiganj in North Dinajpur District will be under special focus because of the sensitivity of the constituency.

At Raiganj, the BJP candidate this time is Kartick Paul, who has replaced sitting party Lok Sabha member from the constituency Debasree Chaudhuri. She is contesting from Kolkata-Dakshin constituency this time. Paul’s closest contestants are Krishna Kalyani of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress’ Ali Imran Ramz a.k.a. Victor.

Raiganj, this time, has a total of 20 candidates, out of whom 19 are male and one is a woman.

At 418, Raiganj has the maximum number of sensitive booths among the three constituencies that are going for polls on Friday.

In Darjeeling the Trinamool Congress has fielded former bureaucrat Gopal Lama while the BJP has re-nominated its sitting MP Raju Bista and the Congress has put Munish Tamang in the fray.

Denied a ticket, the BJP’s sitting legislator from Kurseong Assembly constituency, one of the seven under Darjeeling Lok Sabha, Bishnu Prasad Sharma, is contesting as an Independent candidate this time from Darjeeling.

Darjeeling, this time, has a total of 14 candidates, out of whom 12 are male and two are female. The number of sensitive booths in Darjeeling is 408.

At Balurghat, the main contestants against the BJP’s sitting Lok Sabha MP and state party President Sukanta Majumdar are state minister Biplab Mitra of the Trinamool Congress and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)’s Joydeb Siddhanta.

Balurghat, this time, has a total of 13 candidates and all are male. The number of sensitive booths at Darjeeling is 308.

As per records of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, currently 299 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are in West Bengal, out of which 272 companies will be deployed for the three constituencies on Friday and the rest will be kept on reserve.

The CAPF will be assisted by 12,983 state police personnel.

Raiganj has the maximum allotment of 111 companies of CAPF, followed by 88 companies at Darjeeling and 73 companies at Balurghat.

The polling will start at 7 am and continue till 6 pm on Friday.

--IANS

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