Nearly 70 pc voter turnout recorded in 9 LS seats of Bengal till 5 pm

Kolkata, Jun 1 (PTI) A voter turnout of 69.89 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in nine Lok Sabha seats of West Bengal that went to polls in the seventh and final phase on Saturday, officials said.

The polling percentage in the 2019 general elections in these constituencies was 78.51 per cent.

Polling began in the nine seats at 7 am on Saturday and continued till 6 pm. The final turnout figure is likely to be released by the Election Commission on Sunday.

The highest polling of 76.56 per cent was registered in Basirhat, followed by Mathurapur (74.13), Jaynagar (73.44), Diamond Harbour (72.87), Barasat (71.80), Jadavpur (70.41), Dum Dum (67.60), Kolkata Dakshin (60.88) and Kolkata Uttar (59.23), the officials said.

"The polling was overall peaceful. There were a few incidents of sporadic violence. We have sought reports from the district officers concerned," Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ariz Aftab said.

Till 4 pm, 2,667 complaints were received by the EC over allegations of EVM malfunction and obstruction of agents entering booths, he said.

At least 24 people were injured in the violence, the CEO said.

A total of 1,63,40,345 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise across 17,470 polling stations.

The EC deployed 967 companies of central forces along with over 33,000 state police personnel in the final phase of polling, the officials added. PTI SCH RBT