Polling begins for 7 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal

Kolkata: Polling for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls commenced across seven parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal amid tight security on Monday, an official said.

Voting commenced in Bangaon (SC), Barrackpore, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Hooghly, and Arambag (SC) Lok Sabha constituencies at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.

A total of 1,25,23,702 voters, comprising 63,51,320 men, 61,72,034 women, and 348 belonging to the third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise across 13,481 polling stations.

The Election Commission has designated over 57 per cent of the polling stations as sensitive and deployed over 60,000 personnel of central forces, in addition to around 30,000 policemen.

The number of security forces deployed for this phase surpasses that of any of the four earlier phases in the state.

A total of 88 candidates are contesting in the fifth phase, with the highest number of 15 candidates in Bongaon, where Union Minister Shantanu Thakur is contesting against TMC's Biswajit Das.