Kolkata: The second phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections began at 7 am on April 29, covering 142 constituencies. The Election Commission said voter turnout stood at 78.68% as of 3 pm.
West Bengal has 294 Assembly seats and the election is being held in two phases. Polling for 152 seats was conducted on April 23, when turnout was reported at 93%. The remaining 142 seats are voting today, with polling scheduled to continue until 6 pm.
According to the Election Commission’s updates, turnout was 18.39% by 9 am and rose to 39.79% by 11 am. By 1 pm, it reached 61.11%, before climbing further to 78.68% by 3 pm.
Several prominent Trinamool Congress leaders, including ministers Chandrima Bhattacharya, Pradya Basu, Sujit Bose, Akhil Giri and Pulak Roy, are among the candidates in this phase. A total of 3.21 crore voters are eligible to vote, including about 1.64 crore men and 1.57 crore women.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a social media post, urged people to vote in large numbers to strengthen democracy. He specifically appealed to women and youth in West Bengal to turn out and exercise their franchise.
