All eyes on Yusuf Pathan, Adhir Ranjan, Shatrughna Sinha as Bengal votes on 8 seats

Kolkata: Polling for eight Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal began at 7 am on Monday, amid tight security arrangements, an EC official said.

Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat (SC), Bardhaman Purba (SC), Bardhaman-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur (SC) and Birbhum seats in the state are going to polls in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

Altogether 1.45 crore voters, of whom 71.45 lakh are women and 282 are belonging to the third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise at 15,507 polling stations spread across several districts in south Bengal.

Several heavyweight candidates, including state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Baharampur, and BJP's former state chief Dilip Ghosh from Burdwan-Durgapur, are in the fray.

Ex-cricketer Yusuf Pathan is contesting as a TMC candidate in Baharampur, while actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is the TMC’s Asansol nominee.

The BJP has fielded ‘Rajmata’ Amrita Roy in Krishnanagar seat against sitting MP Mahua Moitra of the TMC.

The Trinamool Congress has nominated former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad in Burdwan-Durgapur and renominated Satabdi Roy in Birbhum.

The poll panel has identified 3,647 polling stations as critical.

The maximum of 659 critical polling stations are in Bolpur, while the least number of 301 such booths are in Bardhaman Purba seat.

There are 640 critical polling stations in Birbhum seat, while Baharampur has 558, Burdwan-Durgapur 422, Ranaghat 410, Krishnanagar 338, and Asansol 319.

A maximum of 152 companies of central forces has been deployed in Bardhaman Purba, 131 in Birbhum, 88 in Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate area, 81 in Krishnanagar, 73 in Murshidabad and 54 in Ranaghat.