West Bengal polls: Voter turnout reaches 58.15 pc till 1:29 pm amid allegations of booth capturing

Amid allegations of booth capturing by both main parties, the voter turnout for the West Bengal Assembly elections reached 58.15 per cent till 1:29 pm on Thursday.

Purba Medinipur recorded the highest turnout among the other four districts, while the Moyna constituency has beat other constituencies in terms of turnout.

Voting for the second phase of the West Bengal Assembly election began at 7 am on Thursday.

Both the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) traded allegations of booth capturing and violence was reported in several areas.

BJP's Mandal President of Debra constituency, Mohan Singh, was detained by the police, following which a ruckus ensued there.

A total of 30 Assembly constituencies from the districts of South 24 Parganas, Bankura, Paschim Medinipur and Purba Medinipur are heading in to vote in the second phase.

Out of the 171 candidates in the fray, 152 are men and the remaining are women. It means only 11 per cent of the candidates are women.

Among these candidates, two are undoubtedly the most prominent figures, that is, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her former ministerial colleague Suvendu Adhikari, who had joined the BJP in December last year.

Apart from Nandigram, another high profile seat that will witness polling in this phase is the Debra constituency. BJP has fielded former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh against Trinamool Congress' Humayun Kabir, also an ex-IPS officer.

The total number of electorates in the second phase is 75,94,549. The smallest constituency is Bishnupur with 2,18,690 electorates whereas Daspur in Paschim Medinipur is the biggest constituency with 2,97,849 electorates.

800 compes of security forces have been deployed to ensure law and order during polling.

The Election Commission has designated 10,620 polling stations for this phase with 8,333 primary stations and 2,287 auxiliary stations.

( With inputs from ANI )