Bengal: Campaign ends for 2nd phase polls, silence period begins​

Kolkata: Campaigning for the second phase of the West Bengal Assembly polls on April 29 officially ended at 6 p.m. on Monday, as the mandatory 48-hour silence period came into effect.​

On the last day of the campaign, there had been the last campaign rally by PM Modi at Jagatdal in the North 24 Parganas district, from where he expressed confidence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning the Assembly polls in West Bengal this time and claimed that he would come to the state next month again to witness the oath ceremony of the first BJP Chief Minister in West Bengal.​

On Monday, the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, also participated in a road show in Behala, on the southern outskirts of Kolkata, where he claimed that the central forces will remain in West Bengal for a considerable period after counting on May 4 to prevent the risk of post-poll violence.​

A total of 142 Assembly constituencies spread across six districts, namely Nadia, East Burdwan, Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, and South 24 Parganas, and the state capital of Kolkata will be going to the polls on April 29 under blanket security coverage.​

A total of 1,448 candidates are in the fray for these 142 Assembly constituencies, which will go to the polls in the second phase on April 29.​

In line with the Election Commission of India’s initiative, the electronic voting machines and ballot papers will bear the coloured photographs of the candidates and their details, including the serial number, name, and symbol, in large font for the ease and convenience of voters.​

The second phase of the Assembly polls will be held under unprecedented security cover, with the deployment of 2,407 companies of central forces, including Central Armed Police Forces, the India Reserve Battalion, and personnel from armed police wings of other states, in addition to personnel from West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police.​

In all these 142 constituencies, the contest this time will be four-cornered, involving the Trinamool Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front, the All India Secular Front alliance, and the Congress.​

The campaign for the second phase of the polls was really unique. On the one hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s target is always the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal government, with the major issues being corruption, crimes against women, hooliganism, the poor condition of the state exchequer, and the plight of industries in the state.​

On the other hand, more than the Bharatiya Janata Party or other opposition forces, the target of the Trinamool Congress had been the Election Commission of India over the Special Intensive Revision exercise, with the ruling party accusing the poll panel of working as an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party in deleting names of around one crore voters through the revision exercise.​

For the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front and the All India Secular Front, although the targets were both the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the attacks against the ruling party were sharper than those against the Bharatiya Janata Party. Both Left Front and the All India Secular Front leadership have accused the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party of having a clandestine understanding.​

On the other hand, the target of the Congress leaders had been mainly the Bharatiya Janata Party, rather than the Trinamool Congress. However, in his last campaign rally in West Bengal last week, Congress leader and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, described the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress as the two sides of the same coin.​

IANS