West Bengal: Over 15 pc voter turnout in 7 LS constituencies till 9 am

A voter turnout of 15.35 per cent was recorded till 9 am in seven Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal that went to polls in the fifth phase, an Election Commission official said.

The Uluberia parliamentary constituency registered the highest polling at 17.25 per cent, followed by Arambag (SC) at 16.38 per cent, Howrah (15.20 per cent), Bangaon (SC) at 15.19 per cent, Barrackpore (15.08 per cent), Sreerampur (14.43 per cent) and Hooghly (14.01 per cent), he said.

Polling began 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 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 earlier four phases in the state.

A total of 88 candidates are in the fray 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.