West Bengal saw a voter turnout of 54.80 percent till 1 pm in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies that went to polls in the sixth phase on Saturday, an election official said.
Polling commenced at 7 am across Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura, and Bishnupur constituencies, and will continue until 6 pm.
Bishnupur (SC) recorded the highest polling percentage at 58.64, followed by Tamluk (57.64), Ghatal (57.31), Jhargram (ST) (56.95), Bankura (54.21), Kanthi (51.66), Medinipur (51.57), and Purulia (50.34), according to the official.
“Voting has been peaceful so far with no reports of any untoward incidents,” the official stated. However, sporadic incidents of violence were reported from certain areas within these constituencies.
By 1 pm, the election office in West Bengal had received 1,646 complaints, the official added.
A total of 1,45,34,228 voters—73,63,273 men, 71,70,822 women, and 133 from the third gender—are eligible to cast their votes in 15,600 polling stations.
Among the 79 candidates contesting, Bankura and Jhargram have the highest number with 13 candidates each, followed by Purulia with 12, and nine candidates each in Medinipur and Tamluk. Bishnupur and Ghatal have seven candidates each.
Security has been tightened with the deployment of 919 companies of central forces and over 29,000 state police personnel, officials said.
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