Campaigning has ended for the fifth phase of assembly elections in West Bengal. Polling will be held in 45 seats spread across 6 districts on Saturday. In all, 319 candidates including 39 women are in the fray in this phase.
Leaders of various political parties left no stone unturned to woo the voters on the last day today.
BJP president J P Nadda held a road show at Bangaon of North 24 Parganas and addressed two meetings in Bardhaman. BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani took part in a road show at Bardhaman before attending rallies in North 24 Parganas.
Trinamool Congress Chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressed three public meetings in Jalpaiguri district.
In North Bengal, polling will be held for 13 seats at Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the fifth phase. BJP, TMC and United Front are contesting in these seats among others. Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed an election rally at Matigara in Darjeeling district this evening. Mr. Gandhi criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his measures to contain the Corona situation. The Congress leader questioned whether Mr Modi did what he did to revive the economy of the country during the COVID pandemic. Mr. Gandhi alleged that the GST and demonetization didn’t benefit the poor people.
He said, the country is not able to create employment for the youths now. Mr. Gandhi also criticized West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her alleged failure in creating employment. Yesterday Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah too addressed a rally at Lebong in Darjeeling.
The Election Commission had extended the silence period to 72 hours from 48 hours, for the fifth phase of assembly polls after violence in Cooch Behar district during the fourth Phase of polling last Saturday.
Meanwhile, the election campaign is in full swing for simultaneous by-Elections to two Lok Sabha seats including Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and Belgaum in Karnataka along with 13 Assembly Constituencies spread over ten states. The campaigning will conclude tomorrow evening. The Assembly Constituencies going in for the By-Polls include three in Rajasthan, two in Karnataka and one each in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Telangana and Uttarakhand. (AIR)