10:15 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
17.19% turnout till 9.30 am
According to the Election Commission’s latest data on voting percentage during the sixth phase of Assembly polls in Bengal, the state recorded a turnout of 17.19 percent as of 9.30 am on Thursday.
09:56 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
PM appeals to people to vote in ‘large numbers’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday urged voters in West Bengal to exercise their franchise as the sixth phase of assembly polls got underway in the state.
Polling began at 7 am on Thursday for 43 seats, including 17 in North 24 Parganas district and nine in Nadia – most of which have a significant presence of the Matuas, who can decisively sway the results in any party’s favour.
Besides, elections are also being held on the nine seats of Uttar Dinajpur district and eight of Purba Bardhaman.
Modi tweeted, “The people of West Bengal are voting to elect a new assembly. On the sixth phase today, urging those whose seats are polling to exercise their franchise.”
09:27 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
779 companies of CAPF deployed
The campaigning for 43 Assembly constituencies going to polls in the sixth phase ended on Monday. The ECI extended the silent period from 48 hours to 72 hours for the remaining phases. The Election Commission deployed 779 companies of central forces for this phase.
09:08 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
Who are the Matua people?
The Matua people form a sect of Vaisnavite Hinduism and are Namasudras, a Scheduled Caste group, with ancestry that can be traced back to the eastern part of undivided Bengal. After the Partition in 1947, many of the Matua migrated to West Bengal in India.
The Matua population is estimated at 50 million, of which about 30 million are in West Bengal alone and 15 million are listed as voters. Tracing their roots to 19th century undivided Bengal, they are considered to have the power to swing elections in as many as 30 Assembly seats and can have a significant impact on another 50.
08:33 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
Full list of 43 constituencies to vote in phase 6 today
In Phase 6 of the Bengal Assembly elections, 43 seats across four districts – Uttar Dinajpur, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, and Purba Bardhaman – go into polls. These are further divided as follows:
9 seats in Uttar Dinajpur – Chopra, Islampur, Goalpokhar, Chakulia, Karandighi, Hemtabad, Kaliaganj, Raiganj, and Itahar.
9 seat in Nadia – Karimpur, Tehatta, Palashipara, Kaliganj, Nakashipara, Chapra, Krishnanagar Uttar, Nabadwip, and Krishnanagar Dakshin.
17 seats in North 24 Parganas – Bagda, Bongaon Uttar, Bongaon Dakshin, Gaighata, Swarupnagar, Baduria, Habra, Ashokenagar, Amdanga, Bijpur, Naihati, Bhatpara, Jagatdal, Noapara, Barrackpore, Khardaha, and Dum Dum Uttar.
8 seats in Purba Bardhaman – Bhatar, Purbasthali Dakshin, Purbasthali Uttar, Katwa, Ketugram, Mangalkot, Ausgram, and Galsi.
08:30 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
Key candidates in phase 6 of Bengal polls
A total of 306 contestants are in the poll fray including Trinamool Congress Ministers like Jyotipriya Mullick from Habra and Chandrima Bhattacharya from Dum Dum Uttar Assembly seats in North 24 Parganas.
Senior BJP leaders like Mukul Roy is contesting from Krishnanagar Uttar and Rahul Sinha from Habra. Sitting MLAs of the Samyukt Morcha, Ali Imran Ramz of All India Forward Bloc, is contesting from Chakulia in Uttar Dinjapur and Tanmoy Bhattacharya of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from Dum Dum Uttar.
08:27 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
Mukul Roy casts vote in phase 6, contesting from Krishnanagar Uttar
BJP national vice president Mukul Roy voted during the sixth phase of state Assembly polls at booth number 141 – at Kanchrapara Municipal Polytechnic High School – in Kanchrapara of North 24 Parganas district.
West Bengal: BJP national vice president Mukul Roy casts his vote for the sixth phase of state Assembly polls at booth number 141 – at Kanchrapara Municipal Polytechnic High School – in Kanchrapara of North 24 Parganas district.#WestBengalElections pic.twitter.com/gDp5z1VYsS
— ANI (@ANI) April 22, 2021
08:11 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
CAA implementation key poll plank for BJP
The main poll plank of the BJP is the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and infiltration, particularly in the border areas, whereas the Trinamool Congress, along with highlighting its welfare schemes, has been campaigning against the implementation of CAA and the National Register of Citizens.
08:03 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
TMC, BJP to contest on all 43 Assembly seats
The TMC and the BJP are contesting all the 43 Assembly seats in Phase 6 of the West Bengal polls.
Both the TMC and the BJP have pitched hard to gain the confidence of Matuas, who make for a large chunk of the state’s Scheduled Caste population, in most of the 17 Assembly segments going to polls in this phase in North 24 Parganas district and some of the nine seats in Nadia.
07:45 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
Matua bastions in fray for phase 6
In North 24 Parganas and also in parts of Nadia like Bongaon Uttar, Bongaon Dakshin, Swarupnagar, Bagda and Krishnanagar Dakshin, there is a high concentration of Matua population. Most of the Assembly seats going to polls on Thursday are reserved for Scheduled Castes. Of the 43 Assembly seats, nine are in reserved category.
Since the past two years, Bongaon, a sub-division in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district bordering Bangladesh, is witnessing a new identity politics around the Matua sect, a Scheduled Caste religious group with origins in Bangladesh.
07:17 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
BJP’s Arjun and Pawan Singh cast vote in Jagatdal today
West Bengal BJP vice president Arjun Singh voted at booth number 144 in Jagatdal of North 24 Parganas on Thursday during the sixth phase of Bengal Assembly polls. His son and party’s candidate from Bhatpara, Pawan Singh also voted today.
West Bengal BJP vice president Arjun Singh casts his vote at booth number 144 in Jagatdal of North 24 Parganas. His son and party’s candidate from Bhatpara, Pawan Singh also casts his vote.
Voting for the sixth phase of #WestBengalPolls is taking place today. pic.twitter.com/Vz3KKbKzwg
— ANI (@ANI) April 22, 2021
07:02 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
Uttar Dinajpur seats in north Bengal bordering Bangladesh and Bihar
Several Assembly constituencies of Uttar Dinajpur district like Chopra, Islampur, Goalpokhar and Chakulia border Bangladesh on one side and Bihar on another. The narrow stretch of land connecting north and south Bengal, often referred as ‘chicken’s neck’, has a strategic importance and is also inhabited by people of all religions and ethnicities.
06:54 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
Assembly seats voting today spread across both north and south Bengal
During the sixth phase of West Bengal Assembly polls, polling will be held in both Uttar Dinajpur and Bardhaman Purba districts of north Bengal, Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts of south Bengal.
Nine seats in Uttar Dinjapur and Nadia each will go to polls on Thursday along with 17 constituencies in North 24 Parganas district and eight in Purba Bardhaman district.
06:49 (IST)
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates
Voting in 43 seats across four districts in phase 6 today
Polling for 43 constituencies in the sixth phase of the West Bengal Assembly Election will begin at 7 am on Thursday with COVID-19 precautions and tight security. The election will seal the fate of 306 candidates spread across four districts North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Uttar Dinajpur and Purba Bardhaman.
West Bengal election 2021 LATEST Updates The BJP national vice president voted during the sixth phase of state Assembly polls at booth number 141 – at Kanchrapara Municipal Polytechnic High School – in Kanchrapara of North 24 Parganas district.
Senior BJP leaders like Mukul Roy is contesting from Krishnanagar Uttar and Rahul Sinha from Habra.
Sitting MLAs of the Samyukt Morcha, Ali Imran Ramz of All India Forward Bloc, is contesting from Chakulia in Uttar Dinjapur and Tanmoy Bhattacharya of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from Dum Dum Uttar.
In North 24 Parganas and also in parts of Nadia like Bongaon Uttar, Bongaon Dakshin, Swarupnagar, Bagda and Krishnanagar Dakshin, there is a high concentration of Matua population.
During the sixth phase of Bengal Assembly polls, polling will be held in both Uttar Dinajpur and Bardhaman Purba districts of north Bengal, Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts of south Bengal.
Polling for 43 constituencies in the sixth phase of the West Bengal Assembly Election will begin today at 7 am with COVID-19 precautions and tight security. The election will seal the fate of 306 candidates spread across four districts North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Uttar Dinajpur and Purba Bardhaman.
Over one crore voters are set to exercise their franchise in today’s elections at 14,480 polling stations. Of the total voters, 53.21 lakh are men, 50.65 lakh are women while 256 belong to the third gender
Security measures have been heightened in view of the violence in the previous phases, particularly the killing of five people in Cooch Behar during the fourth phase of polling on 10 April, an Election Commission official told news agency PTI. Four people were killed in firing by the CISF while one person was killed by miscreants.
To ensure free and fair voting in the sixth phase, the Election Commission has decided to deploy at least 1,071 companies of Central forces, he said. It will also put in place measures to ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols during the voting process, the official said.
West Bengal on Tuesday registered its highest-single- day spike of 9,819 new COVID-19 cases, taking the state’s total case count to 6,78,172, while the toll rose to 10,652 with 46 more succumbing to the disease.
Matua strongholds to vote today
Assembly seats in the Matua strongholds of Bongaon and Krishnanagar, close to the India-Bangladesh border, are among the segments going to the polls today.
Matuas, who make up a large portion of Bengal’s Scheduled Caste population, had been migrating to the state since the 1950s, primarily due to religious persecution in erstwhile East Pakistan and later Bangladesh.
Both the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have pitched hard to gain the confidence of the Matuas in most of the 17 Assembly segments going to polls in this phase in North 24 Parganas district and some of the nine seats in Nadia.
Apart from the implementation of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), two other aspects — identity politics and regional development — have also emerged as decisive factors this election, with bitter rivals TMC and the BJP seeking to woo the community with several promises.
Apart from constituencies in North 24 Parganas and Nadia, elections will be held in nine seats in Uttar Dinajpur district and eight in Purba Bardhaman.
Major contestants
Prominent names in the sixth phase of the polls include BJP’s national vice president Mukul Roy (Krishnanagar North), TMC ministers Jyotipriyo Mallick (Habra) and Chandrima Bhattacharya and CPM leader Tanmay Bhattacharya (Dum Dum Uttar).
The political fate of film director Raj Chakraborty and actor Koushani Mukherjee, who are the TMC’s candidates from the Barrackpore and the Krishnanagar North constituencies respectively, will also be decided in this phase of the election.
Election follows curtailed campaigning
A tough contest between the ruling TMC and its main rival BJP is on the cards.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda and Bollywood star Mithun Chakraborty led the campaign of the saffron party, which has fortified into TMC’s main challenger in this election.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee spearheaded the TMC campaign along with her nephew and party’s youth wing chief Abhishek Banerjee.
However, the Election Commission curtailed the daily campaign hours and extended the “silence period” from 48 hours to 72 hours in each of the remaining three phases of the election in view of the Cooch Behar violence and the rising COVID-19 cases in the state.
Given the surge in cases, political leaders and parties also called off their rallies or decided to hold them on a smaller scale.
Following criticism from rival parties, the BJP on Monday announced that it will limit attendance at all public rallies of its leaders to 500 people.
Banerjee had also decided to curtail her public meetings in all districts and hold only one rally in Kolkata o 26 April while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had days before testing positive, announced that all his rallies stand suspended.
Last week, the CPM had also announced the cancellation of its rallies for the remaining three phases of the West Bengal polls.
Meanwhile, the TMC urged the Election Commission to club the last three phases of the Assembly polls, which the poll panel rejected as not implementable.
Elections have been held in 180 constituencies so far, and the remaining 114 seats are set to go to polls between 22 and 29 April. Votes will be counted on 2 May.
With inputs from PTI