Lok Sabha polls for 42 seats in West Bengal in seven phases

Kolkata Elections for West Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats conducted in seven phases from April 19 to June 1.

Elections for West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats will be conducted in seven phases from beginning on April 19 and concluding on June 1, according to the election schedule announced by the Election Commission of India on March 16. The constituencies of north Bengal will go to polls in the first phases, after which polling will be conducted across the central, south-west and then south regions of the State respectively.

The Trinamool Congress leadership said that the party’s suggestion of holding polls across the State was ignored by the ECI.

State Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the party sought a single phase elections because voter participation drops in multiple phase elections.

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray claimed that this was a disregard for the country’s federal structure . “State government’s views were not taken into account. This is a disregard for the federal structure. We fail to understand the reasons for holding such a long election. This is quite surprising,” Mr. Ray said.

The BJP leadership in West Bengal welcomed the seven-phase polls in State citing the State’s history of political violence.

The State has witnessed elections in multiple phases in the past, including eight-phase Assembly polls in 2021. After the announcement the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls in the State, Opposition parties in the State started demanding the deployment of central armed police forces at the earliest.

State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury demanded that central armed police forces should be deployed in the State days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.