Voting for eight Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal began at 7 am on Monday, under heightened security measures, according to an official from the Election Commission (EC).
The constituencies going to polls in the fourth phase include Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat (SC), Bardhaman Purba (SC), Bardhaman-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur (SC), and Birbhum.
A total of 1.45 crore voters, including 71.45 lakh women and 282 individuals from the third gender, are eligible to cast their votes across 15,507 polling stations spread across various districts in south Bengal.
Several prominent candidates are contesting, including state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Baharampur and BJP's former state chief Dilip Ghosh from Bardhaman-Durgapur.
Former cricketer Yusuf Pathan is running as a TMC candidate in Baharampur, while actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is the TMC’s nominee in Asansol.
The BJP has put forward ‘Rajmata’ Amrita Roy in Krishnanagar against sitting MP Mahua Moitra of the TMC.
In Burdwan-Durgapur, the Trinamool Congress has nominated former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad, while Satabdi Roy has been renominated in Birbhum.
The poll panel has identified 3,647 polling stations as critical, with the highest number in Bolpur at 659 and the least in Bardhaman Purba at 301.
Birbhum has 640 critical polling stations, Baharampur has 558, Burdwan-Durgapur has 422, Ranaghat has 410, Krishnanagar has 338, and Asansol has 319.
A maximum of 152 companies of central forces have been deployed in Bardhaman Purba, 131 in Birbhum, 88 in Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate area, 81 in Krishnanagar, 73 in Murshidabad, and 54 in Ranaghat.
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