Summary of Sixth Phase of West Bengal elections

Summary of Sixth Phase of West Bengal elections

By Deepak Parvatiyar

- See more at: http://www.elections.in/blog/summary-sixth-phase-west-bengal-elections/#sthash.GBbd5oC1.dpuf

The concluding phase of polling on the 32nd day of the poll process in West Bengal was historic as about 90% of the ‘eligible’ 9400 residents of the 51 Enclaves of Bangladesh (merged with India following enclave exchange between the two countries on 31 July 2015), voted for the first time as Indian citizens in the final leg on 5 May. The Election Commission of India had enrolled them by “special efforts” in little over four months after delimitation of constituencies.

High Voter Turnout

In all, 84.24% percent of the 58.04 lakh voters turned out to cast their votes till 5 pm in the 25 assembly constituencies of the two poll-bound districts of the state — Cooch Behar (9 constituencies), and East Midnapore (16 Constituencies). While the voter turnout was 82.71% in Cooch Behar district, it was 85.09% in East Midnapore district. The percentage would be revised further following aggregation of final figures.
High turnout was registered in these two districts even during the 2011 assembly elections (88.41%) and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections (85.29%). Incidentally, phase six has registered the highest percentage of voter turnout during the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal. It may be mentioned that Phase 1 (A) had registered 84.22% turnout, Phase 1(B), 83.73%, Phase 2, 83.05%, Phase 3, 83.28%, Phase 4, 81.25% and Phase 5 had seen 81.66% voter turnout.
Fate of 170 candidates, including 18 women candidates, was sealed in the ballot box in the sixth phase of polling.

Largely Peaceful Polling

Barring stray incidents of violence, the Election Commission claimed the polling was largely “fair and peaceful”. However, with rise in incidents during the more than a month-long election in the state, the Election Commission came under attack from the incumbent chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who had squarely put the blame on the Commission for the violence ripping through the state on grounds that the state administration during the election period was placed under the Commission.
In view of such criticism, the Commission had adopted new methods such as night patrolling and bike patrolling in the poll-bound regions to prevent cross-border movements at international borders and intimidation of voters by anti-social elements. Prior to the last leg of voting, the Commission also conducted “Thanawise” identification of anti-social elements and took preventive action against 11484 people in both the districts. In all, 33 candidates in the fray during Phase 6, had criminal cases against them.

Candidates in the Dock

In course of polling, FIRs were registered at the instance of the Commission against two Trinamool Congress candidates in Cooch Behar district, Udayan Guha, contesting from Dinhata, and Rabindranath Ghosh, who is contesting from Natabari. Both are accused of entering into the polling stations and intimidating the voters. Both Guha, who had left the All India Forward Bloc to join the TMC last year, and Ghosh were caught by TV cameras while entering polling booths in their respective constituencies and intimidating voters.

Can Congress-Left combine stage an upset?

It may be mentioned that the two poll bound districts are considered the impregnable fortress of the ruling TMC. The party had made a clean sweep in East Midnapore district by winning all 16 seats. The party won 20 of the 25 seats in the two districts in 2011 assembly elections. The Congress Party, which was a TMC ally then, had bagged one. The Left Front had won only 4 seats then—all won by the All India Forward Bloc.
However, with the Congress siding with the Left now, it is to be seen whether the poll arithmetic changes this time, considering that despite its miserable record in terms of winning seats, the Left did enjoy 43.9% vote share in 2011 which was only marginally less than the TMC’s 44.6%. The Congress then had got 2.7% vote share. This could well be a disturbing factor for the TMC, although it might hope to repeat its performance of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in these two districts, when its vote share had shot up to 48% as against the Left Front’s 35% and the Congress’ 3.6%.
The TMC had then led in 24 of the 25 assembly segments and the only segment where the Communist Party of India – Marxist had led, the margin was just over 2,000 votes at Mekliganj in Cooch Behar district. As far as the BJP is concerned, it would like to hold on to its 2014’s performance when it had got 11% vote share – a steep rise from 3.7% in 2011. However, the party does not have much presence in East Midnapore. Like the TMC, the BJP, too, is contesting all 25 seats in the two districts.

- See more at: http://www.elections.in/blog/summary-sixth-phase-west-bengal-elections/#sthash.GBbd5oC1.dpuf