My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Who will be the next CM of West Bengal? By Deepak Parvatiyar April 2, 2016 - See more at: http://www.elections.in/blog/who-will-be-the-next-cm-of-west-bengal/#sthash.IhmRETNs.dpuf As her rivals fail in trading options, it is the irrepressible Mamata Banerjee versus all in West Bengal these elections. As of now, she rides high on favourable opinion poll predictions about her return as the chief minister irrespective of the various scams and serious corruption charges that her government and party as well —the Trinamool Congress  — are embroiled with. Not to be perturbed with the recent sting operation showing her party’s members of Parliament purportedly involved in accepting bribes, the long-standing Saradha Scam, where her government faces the heat from all corners, or even the poll-eve collapse of an incomplete flyover right in the heart of the busy state capital that cost many lives, the maverick Didi banks on her personal charisma and seems least bothered about the c

Summary of First Phase of West Bengal Assembly Elections By Deepak Parvatiyar April 4, 2016 - See more at: http://www.elections.in/blog/summary-first-phase-west-bengal-assembly-elections/#sthash.kTlTQRyP.dpuf About 80 per cent of the 40,09,000 votes were polled till 5 pm in the 18 of the 294 Assembly constituencies in the three districts of Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura in the first phase of the six-phase elections in West Bengal on 4 April. However, polling was less than what was registered in 2011 assembly elections as well as in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in these constituencies. In the 2011 assembly polls, the voter turnout here was 83.72 per cent and in 2014, it was 83.39 per cent. Total 393 companies of central forces as well as 12,000 state police personnel were deployed to ensure peaceful polling during the first phase. Significantly, 13 of these constituencies were in the naxal-affected Junglemahal area of the state and out of 4, 945 polling booths,

Summary of First Phase of Assam Elections By Deepak Parvatiyar April 4, 2016 - See more at: http://www.elections.in/blog/summary-first-phase-assam-elections/#sthash.fnfJqJ00.dpuf     Chief minister Tarun Gogoi as well as the CM face of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Sarbananda Sonowal were among 539 candidates including 43 female candidates, whose fate were sealed in the ballot box in the first round of voting in Assam after the first phase of the two-phased state assembly elections on April 4. While Gogoi is pitted against the BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Jorhat, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, in Titabor constituency, Sonowal is contesting against the Congress’s sitting legislator Rajib Lochan Pegu in Majuli.     An impressive 78.06 per cent voters   out of the total 95,11,732 voters turned out to exercise their franchise in the 12,190 polling booths of 65 constituencies from across 14 districts of tea-growing Upper Assam, that included 45 constituencies of Brahmaputra