Bengal by-polls: Obstructed by TMC workers while going to cast vote, alleges BJP candidate from Dinhata

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Dinhata Assembly seat in Cooch Behar, Asoke Mandal, on Saturday alleged that Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers tried to stop him while he was going to cast his vote at booth number 291 at Dinhata High School.

Meanwhile, West Bengal recorded a voter turnout of 28.38 per cent till 11 am in the four Assembly constituencies during the by-elections on Saturday.

According to the election commission, the Dinhata assembly seat recorded 28.73 per cent voter turnout while 33.87 per cent turnout was recorded on the Gosaba seat.

Khardaha seat witnessed a voter turnout of 23.60 per cent whereas the Santipur seat reported a 32.31per cent turnout.

The voting began at around 7 am and will continue till 6:30 pm on Saturday.

Santipur and Dinhata seats fell vacant after BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar and Nishith Pramanik resigned from the assembly, respectively.

Whereas, elections on the other two seats are being held as All India Trinamool Congress' (TMC) MLAs Kajal Sinha (Khardah) and Jayanta Naskar (Gosaba) died due to COVID-19.

There is a tough fight between the BJP and the TMC for retaining the seats they had and capturing the other two.

TMC leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who had resigned from the Bhabanipur constituency to facilitate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's election to the Assembly, is fighting from Khardah.

The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC registered a landslide victory in polls held earlier this year, winning 213 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly. The BJP emerged as the second-largest party with 77 seats.

Other than West Bengal, voting is underway in three parliamentary seats and 26 other assembly constituencies in various states across the country today.

The results of these polls will be announced on November 2.

"The Commission has reviewed the situations related to the pandemic, flood, festivals, cold conditions in certain regions, feedback from concerned States/UT and taken into consideration all facts and circumstances and it has decided to hold bye-elections to fill vacancies in three Parliamentary Constituencies of UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu; Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh and 30 vacancies in Assembly Constituencies of various States," read the Election Commission of India's press note released on September 28.

( With inputs from ANI )