Polling is underway in West Bengal for the seventh phase of polling of the eight-phase elections on Monday where 34 Assembly constituencies spread across five districts are going for polls.
Of the 34 constituencies 9 Assembly constituencies each are in Murshidabad and West Burdwan, 6 each in South Dinajpur and Malda and 4 in Kolkata.
In this seventh phase 268 candidates from different political parties are in the fray of which 37 candidates are female.
The total number of electors including service voters in these constituencies are 81,96,242 with 42,00,447 male electors and 39,88,239 female voters.
The total number of polling booths are 11,376 that includes 8,634 main and 2,742 auxiliary booths.
The number of 80 plus voters are 1,01,069 while 50,919 are PWD (Persons with Disabilities) voters.
The total number of service electors are 7,335, third gender voters are 221 while overseas voters are 33.
Though primarily 36 Assembly constituencies were scheduled for the election but it was reduced to 34 after the death of two Sanjukta Morcha candidates of Samsergunj and Jangipur Assembly constituencies in Murshidabad the elections in these two constituencies were deferred to May 16.
The Election Commission has deployed 26 general observers, 9 expenditure observers, and 6 police observers for the 7th phase of polls. There will be webcasting facilities in 50 percent of the booths and micro-observers will be deployed in 20 percent of the booths.
Of the total 11376 booths, there are 5,028 booths that are considered to be highly sensitive. According to Election Commission data, Murshidabad with 1,680 sensitive booths has the highest number of sensitive booths followed by West Burdwan that has 1,428 sensitive booths. Apart from that Malda and South Dinajpur have 1,120 and 420 sensitive booths respectively.
The four constituencies of Kolkata have 380 sensitive booths.
The Commission has deployed 653 companies of central forces for the seventh phase of Assembly elections with more concentration of forces in the bordering districts- Malda, South Dinajpur, and Murshidabad. Murshidabad will have the highest allocation of 204 companies, Malda will have 122 companies while South Dinajpur will have 110 companies.
The two non-bordering districts West Burdwan will have 154 companies while south Kolkata will have 63 companies.